Like a Lightning Bolt
by Lucison
Summary: A discussion with Madame Pomfrey at the end of 2nd year changes Harry's outlook on his future. No longer willing to spend his time lazing about, Harry gets serious about schoolwork. How will this and a few other changes revealed to the students at the start of the next school year affect the final outcome? More Inside.
1. Chapter 1

**Hello all and welcome to 'Like A Lightning Bolt', my first attempt at a multi-chapter story. Firstly, here is the expanded summary.**

**Summary: **A discussion with Madame Pomfrey at the end of 2nd year changes Harry's outlook on his future. No longer willing to spend his time lazing about, Harry gets serious about schoolwork. How will this and a few other changes revealed to the students at the start of the next school year affect the final outcome? Non-determined pairing. Smart Harry. Focused Harry. Ron Bashing. Ginny Bashing. Molly Bashing. Good But Misguided Dumbledore. OCs and OOCs throughout the story, with a natural influx of OCs during 4th year.

**So there you have it, and in case you are wondering, yes, yes I am terrible at summaries. Now, my intention for this story is twofold, it is to help keen my skills as a fanfiction author, as well as try and curb my muse into focusing upon one task at a time, rather than many at once. My hope is to wind up with an average chapter length of approximately 5000 words, this might not always be possible, as, naturally, some events do take up massive amounts of time, therefore a chapter that finishes below this threshold is typically because what comes next could take up a massive chunk, if not all of, a new chapter.**

**Also of note will be that within this story Arithmancy will be the more common fanfiction form wherein it is the analysing and breakdown of spells into formula, as opposed to numerology, which it is in canon. This will play a major part, and while I will not do as some do and go into depth on it, well, I won't for this story at least, it will have a basic overview, ie, if I do a classroom, scene, they won't be doing a theory lesson, more of a lesson where they practice what they have already been taught previously on a new spell.**

**So, without further ado here is the first chapter for the story, enjoy.**

"**Speech"  
'Thoughts'  
"**_**Spells**_**"  
**_**Book Names**_

**Disclaimer: Does a powerful female character, with immense amounts of potential from a writer's point of view, get killed by a fat, non-combatant house wife cause love? If so, I clearly don't own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter One**

Harry James Potter, a boy twelve years of age, laid in a bed within the Hospital Wing, which was, quite unfortunately, filled with many more students than it normally would be. Mr Potter however, was the only one of these students capable of movement at the time, as the other students within the Wing were petrified, rendered this way by the Basilisk that Harry had slain mere hours ago.

Much to Harry's annoyance, after he had brought the destroyed diary of Tom Marvolo Riddle, the object that had been possessing one Ginny Weasley for the majority of the school year, to the Headmaster, Albus Dumbledore, Harry had been forcibly taken to the Hospital Wing by the very, very irate Matron of the wing, Poppy Pomfrey. The Medi-Witch insisted on keeping Harry overnight for observation, after all, he was one of the very few people to have ever survived the venom of the Basilisk. Which brings us to this point, where Harry is laying, waiting for Madame Pomfrey to finish checking on the petrified students, before she came over to begin diagnostics on him.

"Alright," said the Medi-Witch as she began strolling over to Harry's bed, "Please remove your shirt Mr Potter, it's filthy, and I'm worried what that might do to the diagnostic spells results."

"Ok ma'am." Harry replied, slipping his, indeed quite filthy, shirt off, allowing the Matron to begin her tests.

"Honestly Harry, you've been in here more times than any student has the right to be, just call me Poppy, Merlin knows we don't need to be so formal after all this time." Ground out the slightly disgruntled witch, quite clearly not amused by the fact that Harry insisted on calling her ma'am, as well as the sheer number of times he had been under her care.  
"I can already tell you there is nothing I can do for that scar on your arm, the Phoenix tears and Basilisk venom inside it will render the potions we used to remove the last set of scars you had inert." Poppy chose to ignore the small flinch Harry had at those words, knowing full well he was uncomfortable with the topic of where exactly he had acquired the scars she mentioned.

As Poppy continued waving her wand and recording the results on a nearby parchment, Harry reflected on the events that had given him those scars. The scars had been a lattice upon his back, evidence of his Uncle's not so rational reactions to Harry's bouts of accidental magic. He relaxed though, he was well aware that his uncle refused to touch him after Harry found out he was a wizard, worried that with him actively practicing his 'freakishness' it might somehow contaminate him if he did so.

"Honestly, you do realize you are lucky to be alive right Mr Potter?" Inquired the Matron, as she gazed over the results she had recorded, "The Basilisk venom and Phoenix tears seem to now both be a part of your bloodstream, most likely neither is able to overpower the other, so the two substances are simply remaining in your bloodstream."

"Is that, is that a bad thing?" Asked Harry, his slightly scared tone of voice not adequately demonstrating just how frightened the idea made him.

"From these scans, not at all, the two are simply there, not doing any harm, Lady Luck must truly love you Mr Potter, grown wizards are barely capable of killing a Basilisk with their magic. I think only the Headmaster, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick would be capable of doing it on their own, and that is if the beast was already blinded, for you to have done it with a sword is miraculous." Poppy looked at him, quite clearly showing the small flicker of disbelief dancing behind her professional demeanour, "Professor Snape would also be capable, however, he would need help to do so, speaking of which, I am going to have to speak with him, your new circumstances, put together with your history of visits to my Infirmary, are going to require some altered potions on hand for healing you." Harry grimaced at the mention of Severus Snape, the man and Harry not exactly getting along.

"They would have been capable of killing it with magic?" Inquired Harry, his brief research into the King of Serpents revealing it to have magically resistant scales on par with a dragon's scaly hide, to be capable of killing it with magic astounded the young wizard.

"Of course, Albus and Minerva are both Masters in the field of Transfiguration, both being experts in using it in the battlefield, the few times I have seen them ever engage in duelling I was awed by the work they could create, shaping everything in sight to their advantage and their opponents disadvantage**(1)**. Filius, well, he WAS a European duelling champion for quite some years, as well as having a mastery of Charms, silent casting, and spell chaining combined with his speed of movement, he would be able to run circles around the beast, striking its weak points with sheer number of spells." Explained Poppy, having taken a seat during her explanation. She would admit the look of amazement as Harry attempted to picture the different scenes, no doubt imagining the spellwork being used against the same beast he himself only just fought.

"How would Sn- Professor Snape," Poppy's glare causing him to correct himself, "be capable of taking it down? I don't imagine many potions can be used to take on a Basilisk." Harry appeared genuinely curious at this, after all, while he knew, thanks to Hermione, that Snape was the youngest to ever gain the title of Potions Master, the only time he had seen Snape use anything he could even consider a combat spell was when he fought Lockhart in that sham of a Duelling Club, not taking much effort at all.

"Young Severus is not just a Potions Master Harry, he has a Masters in Defence Against the Dark Arts as well. Not only that, but Severus has made several spells of his own, quite a few in fact. He was a brilliant student, and his skills in spell creation, something typically taught only in NEWT Arithmancy, where well known even in his fourth year of schooling. As long as he had others to help back him up, I have no doubt that he would be capable of taking a Basilisk down." Poppy explained, happy to shed a different light on the 'Dungeon Bat', "In fact, the only student who showed more skills in spell creation was Severus' closest friend." Added Poppy, waiting for Harry to take the bait and ask who it was.

"Professor Snape had a FRIEND? He uhhh, doesn't really seem the type." Harry added, trying to hide his curiosity at this insight into his least favourite professor, Lockhart and Quirrel never really taught anything after all, keeping them from being contenders for the spot.

"Oh yes, Snape had a good friend, if I remember correctly he was friends with her from before Hogwarts." A small grin was making its way onto her face at the sheer disbelief held on poor Harry's face.

"Who was it? I mean, I can't even imagine him as a first year, yet alone a first year with a friend already."

"Your mother Harry. Your mother and Severus were the best of friends for the first five years of school, they unfortunately had quite the falling out in their sixth year though. That friendship though caused poor Severus a lot of strife." Poppy's tone grew quite sombre near the end.

"My, my MUM, was friends with SNAPE?!" Harry was dumbfounded by this information, till the last part of what Poppy said caught up to him, "How was being friends with my mum something that caused him strife?"

"Your father and Severus' housemates in Slytherin. Both took exceptions to the friendship, both had different ways of showing it. While Severus's housemates merely ignored him and shunned him for the first few years, your father, smitten with your mother from the day he saw her, was an unrepentant prankster, he and his friends making the Weasley twins look tame. As a result of your father's attraction to your mother, the primary target for a lot of your father's pranks wound up being young Severus, quite a few times he even ended up in here as a result." Poppy ensured that she had Harry's eye contact all throughout her little speech.  
"I don't tell you this to make you think your father was a bad man Harry, he was juvenile at first, but he did mature, had he not, your mother would have never stopped hating him," Harry's eyebrows shot to the top of his head with that information, "Yes, naturally, as I'm sure you know, as the friend of a bully's main target, she didn't like your father one bit until he had matured and, while he never stopped the pranking, he did tone it down a fair bit." Harry's mind had immediately thought of how his hatred for Draco Malfoy had increased every time he picked on one of Harry's friends, making Harry realize how his mother must have felt towards his father.

'So that's why he doesn't like me.' Thought Harry, recalling Snape comparing him and his father many times.  
"So, my mum made spells too?" Asked Harry, the need for information in his voice so overpowering that Poppy sobered right out of her sombre mood, realizing this is perhaps the most he has ever learnt about his parent's childhoods.

"Yes, she was quite talented, just as much as young Ms Granger," Poppy nodded her head towards the bed where Hermione laid petrified, "Your mother's speciality was Charms and Potions, with Runes and Arithmancy being close behind them, I had even heard that she had transfigured a flower petal into a fish, and then charmed it alive. Your father on the other hand, was a prodigy when it came to Transfiguration, don't tell Minerva, but I am sure that he led two of his friends and himself through the process of becoming Animagi, a difficult and exceptional feat, although, he never registered, so, consider it our little secret." Poppy gave him a wink.

"How could you tell he and his friends became Animagi?" Harry appeared genuinely curious about this, not understanding how the Medi-Witch would know if the Transfiguration professor didn't.

"HA, there is only so many times one boy can come in with antlers or hooves, another with a dog's tail or snout, while the third would have whiskers and a rats tail, before I realize that they are attempting to BECOME those animals, as opposed to pranks gone wrong, or, Transfiguration accidents." Poppy had a large smile on her face at this point, showing how humorous she found the situation.

"My parents really put their all into their studies huh?" Harry's tone not truly conveying how he felt, as he compared what Poppy told him with his own studies, which primarily consisted of him goofing off with Ron then begging Hermione for help the night before it was due. Harry remembered when he was in Primary school with Dudley, how he would have to make the effort to have lower grades then Dudley, admittedly quite a difficult thing to do. He realized he didn't need to keep doing that, his parents did well in school, and there was no longer anyone telling him to hold back, he made a vow right then, he was going to take his studies seriously, and make sure that he made his parents proud, no matter how difficult it got.  
"Poppy, do I HAVE to stay overnight? It's just, the feast is tomorrow, and I need to go see Professor McGonagall about something."

Poppy smiled.  
"Of course dear, with these results and you not having enough time before curfew to get into any MORE trouble, I can allow that, if you feel sick or anything though, you come here immediately, understood?" Asked Poppy, the jovial smile of Poppy changing to the stern mask of Madame Pomfrey as she finished.

"Yes Poppy." Harry said, as he slid off the bed, slowly putting on the spare robe that had appeared while they were talking. After making himself look presentable Harry said good night to the Matron as he left to go and see Professor McGonagall.

* * *

Minerva McGonagall was not having a good day. Firstly, she finds out that one of her Lion Cubs, poor Ginny Weasley, had been taken into the Chamber of Secrets, a location the staff at Hogwarts had NEVER been able to find. Secondly, she then finds out that two MORE of her lions have gone down into the Chamber willingly, Harry Potter and Ron Weasley, to make matters worse, they had apparently gone down with Gilderoy Lockhart, the pompous fool was going to cause more harm than good. Finally, she finds out that Harry had successfully gone into the Chamber, slain the beast and rescued Ginny from some book that had possessed her for most of the year, and neither she, nor the poor girl's siblings, had noticed.

The only solace Minerva had was the small amount of good news she had received from Pomona Sprout that the Mandrakes were ready and Severus was preparing the potion needed to heal the petrified students in the hospital wing, with the potion being ready before the feast at the latest.

Just as Minerva began to pack up her work, done for the night on this stressful day, there was a knock on her door. Taking the time to quickly rub her temples, worried about what potential head ache was going to walking in through her door next, she beckoned them to enter.

Much to both her relief and consternation, the door opened to reveal one Harry Potter, certainly not the person should would have expected to be on the other side of the door, Poppy never did like letting her patients go after all. Considering the time, Minerva's thoughts immediately turned to Harry having snuck away from the Medi-witch's domain.  
"Weren't you supposed to be in the Hospital Wing Mr Potter?" The stern look she gave demanding he tell the truth immediately or face the punishment.

"Yes Professor, but, after she checked me over and we had a bit of a chat, Po- I mean, Madame Pomfrey," McGonagall quirked an eye at Harry's slip up, remembering another near identical boy making the same mistake many years ago, "let me out so I could come and see you, as well as rest in an actual bed, as long as I went back if I felt any discomfort or pain." Harry made sure to keep eye contact at all time, while keeping the slight tremor of fear he felt out of his voice.

"I see. What pray tell, did you need to see me about at this time of night?" McGonagall was truly curious at this point, after all, not many students purposefully seek out their Head of House the second last day of term, less than half an hour before curfew.

"Well, Madame Pomfrey and I, we were talking about my parents, and she pointed out that they both, well, they both took their classes a bit more seriously than I have been, an unfortunate habit I picked up that I didn't realize I was continuing till I actually thought about it. Anyway, I would like to change my electives for next year if I could. Divination, while, at least according to Ron, is an easy OWL, it's not exactly going to help me, what with my track record, and while knowing how to care for Magical Creatures might be handy later, it's not exactly going to help me if I have to fight them. I mean, what am I going to do, make sure an angry Manticore is properly groomed? Not a lot of good that will be if it's trying to eat me." Harry stopped to collect his thoughts, realizing he was beginning to rant.

"I see. It is true that your performance so far has been quite, inadequate, compared to what I was expecting of you, after all, your mother and father were quite above the average witch and wizard." McGonagall ensured that Harry was listening before she continued. "So, if you do not wish to take those two electives Mr Potter, what do you wish to take instead, and might I ask of your reasoning for each class?"

"Well, after the talk I had with Madame Pomfrey, I would like to take Arithmancy and Runes. I want to take Arithmancy because while the subject sounds hard, it also sounds rewarding, especially with the subject eventually teaching how to make spells, something which the information you provided us to choose the subjects from didn't say. I think this will allow me to have a better understanding of the spells I am using in my other subjects, which in turn will hopefully allow me to perform better in my other subjects." As Harry took a pause to catch his breath and remember why he considered Runes, McGonagall nodded her head, jotting down the new information on Harry's file, having summoned it while he was talking. "I want to take Runes because of the different aspects of it, warding sounds like it would be helpful in protecting my belongings and wherever I might live, while being able to enchant objects with magical properties using runes sounds like an amazingly helpful ability." Once again as Harry finished McGonagall nodded her head and made another note on the file.

"Okay, that can easily be arranged, thankfully you had your change of heart before the end of term, had we already begun organising class rolls and timetables, it would have been a bit more of a hassle for us to change it around." McGonagall began packing up Harry's file, putting back into the pile with the rest of the 2nd year files on her desk. "If that will be all Mr Potter?"

"Actually, I was wondering something, it was about something Madame Pomfrey said," McGonagall waved her hand, beckoning him to continue, "Madame Pomfrey said that my dad was an Animagus, like you are, did you know anything about it?"

McGonagall began looking at Harry, examining him quite thoroughly, as if trying to find any flaw in what he had just said. Without warning McGonagall waved her wand and a rather odd looking book floated over, book being a loose term for what looked to be nothing more than handwritten notes bound together. The book came to rest in front of McGonagall, who didn't even seem fazed by the book's rather odd appearance.

"The skill you are asking me about is a skill considered above NEWT level Transfiguration, in fact, anyone capable of managing the transformation process on their own, without a master overlooking the actual transformations themselves, is considered an honorary Master of Transfiguration, after all, the level of skill needed to perform it without supervision is immense. It is also, highly regulated, and requires a person who has undertaken the process to be registered. After all, if the Ministry were to discover a full-fledged Animagus, while being able to prove they have been so for an extended amount of time, the person can be fined or even imprisoned as a result, do you understand Mr Potter?" Harry nodded his head, the sternness in her voice more than enough for him to realize the seriousness of the situation.

"Now, a certain student of mine, quite fond of having transfiguration accidents involving antlers," At this Harry perked up, remembering Poppy mentioning this earlier, "who's friends began calling him 'Prongs' shortly after this began occurring, wrote all of his notes on his, 'accidents', down. Naturally, he gave them to me, so I could make sure these, 'accidents', didn't happen very often. However, I think Prongs would have wanted you to have these notes, to help make sure you don't have the same, 'accidents'." As she said this, Minerva handed Harry the book, a gentle smile on her face, Harry noted the title roughly printed on the front _The Marauders Guide to Beastly Pranks by Messrs Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs_, "Now, I have to say to you, if you wish to undertake such an endeavour as the Animagus transformation, for one, Miss Granger will no doubt be of great help, however, the two of you should wait until you finish school before trying it. However, if the two of you were to, ahem, learn some 'Beastly Pranks', I'm sure the two of you will be able to work it out from these notes, based purely upon the speculation that you truly work hard Mr Potter."

Harry stared in awe at the book, slowly moving his fingers of the word 'Prongs' written on the front, realizing from McGonagall's hint that 'Prongs' was the nickname his father's friends had given him based on his Animagus form. Harry, nodded at the professor, mentally deciding that there would be a new set of Marauders, and he was damn well going to make sure he was able to be just as much of a help to Hermione as she would be to him when they decoded the notes in the book he now held.

"Of course Professor, I wouldn't want to disappoint anymore then my less than adequate performance already has. Good Night Professor, I will see you at the feast tomorrow night." As Harry finished saying this, he began to walk out.

"One more thing Mr Potter," Harry stopped just inside the doorframe on the way out, "I do believe that if you would like some extra reading, Professors Flitwick, Babbling, and Vector all have notes left behind by your mother, I'm sure they would be more than willing to part with them for you, if you just ask of course. Consider it something to do tomorrow, while you wait for Miss Granger to be cured of her petrification. Good Night Mr Potter." Harry nodded, closing the door behind him as he went off to Gryffindor Tower, the book held close to his chest as he went, head thick with thoughts about his parents, and what his future would now bring.

* * *

Harry's summer had been going well. He had been ignored by his Uncle, given no chores by his Aunt, and spent all day in his room reading his schoolbooks over again. When he finished his schoolbooks, he began reading his father's notes, hoping that he would be able to understand them. Everything was fine for Harry, at least, until SHE came. Marge, Vernon's sister, an ugly woman inside and out who bred mean little dogs. She of course began having a go at Harry's parents, who, Harry felt closer to than ever, as a result, Harry lost it, accidental magic and all, inflating the woman. This of course, caused Harry to panic, which brings us to where we are now, Harry, having just packed up his stuff and left the Dursley's, is making his way to London, on foot, at night.

Harry stopped, feeling someone watching him, causing Harry to stop and look around. He was just outside an old park, but that was empty. Harry was wondering if it was someone in one of the houses nearby before he heard a twig snap. Turning to face the noise, Harry saw a big black dog, with gleaming silver eyes. The strangest thing was, Harry thought he recognized the dog, or at least, it looked a lot like the description his father had put in his notes of what Sirius Black, also known as Padfoot, looked like in his Animagus form. Deciding there was no harm in it if it turned out to be a regular dog, Harry decided to investigate.

"Padfoot?" asked Harry, slowly lifting his wand up with a light charm on the end. Harry saw the dog's tail start shaking just as the dog barked in response. So focused on the dog, Harry was NOT prepared for the giant double-decker bus that appeared in front of him with a bang, causing Harry to fall back with a start.

"Welcome to The Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard. Just stick out your wand hand, step on board, and we can take you wherever you want to go. My name is Stan Shunpike, and I will be your conductor this eve-,**(2)**" The man, identified as Stan Shunpike, stopped reading off the small palm card he had in his hand when he noticed Harry was laying on the ground, "What you doing down there?"

"I fell over." Harry replied in an annoyed tone, as he picked himself back up from where he fell.

"What you fall over for?" Inquired Stan, not seeming to comprehend that Harry might not have expected the bus to appear.

"Got distracted, so it surprised me when the bus showed up. Speaking of which." Harry quickly lied, as he moved to peak his head around the bus to see if the dog was still there.

"What you looking at?" Stan having poked his head around the bus as well, seeing nothing, was quite confused.

"There was a dog, I was worried you might have frightened it." Once again the lie came easily to his lips, after all, if that was Padfoot, and he didn't turn back when the bus showed up, he clearly had a reason not to be seen.

"Ah, right then, where you want to go?" Said Stan, as he began to lift up Harry's trunk onto the bus.

"The Leaky Cauldron, in London." Said Harry, making sure his hair covered his scar while the conductor's back was turned.

"Alright, that will be eleven sickles," Stan stopped and looked at his palm card again, "But for thirteen you get hot chocolate, and for fifteen you get a hot water bottle and toothbrush in the colour of your choice.**(3)**" Nodding to himself as he finished, Stan stuck his hand out, waiting to see how much Harry would put in his hand.

Harry reached into his pocket, pulled out a fist full of coins he had put there for when he got to the Cauldron, and counted out eleven sickles, dropping them into the conductor's hand and taking the ticket he handed back. Moving onto the bus, Harry saw that instead of seats, there were beds, taking the one closest to the front, Harry almost missed the conductor telling the driver to go, and he certainly was not prepared to be thrown around while the bus moved.

"Who is that?" Asked Harry, motioning to the man in the picture on the Daily Prophet that Stan was holding that mentioned the man as an escapee from Azkaban, the wizard prison Harry remembered Hagrid was taken to last year.

"Who him?" Asked Stan, pointing at the picture, "That's Sirius Black!" Stan was looking at the picture as he said this, not noticing Harry's startled reaction.

'Well, I guess that explains why HE didn't raise me, I wonder about the other two Marauders.' Thought Harry, schooling his features.  
"What was he in Azkaban for?" Asked Harry, definitely curious.

"You're a Muggleborn ain't you? He murdered a whole bunch of muggles, and Peter Pettigrew, with a big explosion, all they found of Peter was a finger," Stan decided to lift and twitch one of his fingers then, chuckling to himself as he wiggled it, "Peter tried to stop him after he betrayed the Potters to You-Know-Who. Poor guy didn't stand a chance."

'Well, that explains Wormtail, then again, if he was dead, wouldn't there have been, I don't know, more chunks, considering he was blown up? Could, could he have run away as a rat? After all if Padfoot betrayed Mum and Dad, why didn't he attack me just now? Why did he seem happy to see me?' Harry was so focused on his thoughts he only vaguely heard the talking shrunken head mention an old lady, right before his face slammed into the glass.

Shortly after stopping for the old lady on the street, the bus took off again, and after a large amount of twists and turns, the bus finally pulled up at the Leaky Cauldron. After Harry got off and grabbed his things from Stan, saying goodbye and thanking him for the information, Harry was escorted by Tom to a room where the Minister of Magic informed him that he wasn't expelled like he thought, that the problem was already taken care of. Harry asked the Minister to sign off on his permission slip to visit Hogsmeade, saying that his muggle Uncle refused because he didn't understand what a Hogsmeade was, and in a way, the Minister WAS a guardian for the people, the Minister was more than happy to ingratiate himself towards Harry by signing off on the permission slip. The Minister, who at this point was insisting Harry call Cornelius, told Harry that when going to Hogsmeade he should be careful, informing him of a detachment of Dementors, the guards of Azkaban, to the area around Hogwarts and Hogsmeade, in case Sirius Black attempted to get close. With his warnings given, Cornelius said goodbye, and left in order to return to his own home. Harry decided to settle in for the night, giving Hedwig water to drink and then turning the lights out, Harry went to sleep.

* * *

**So there you have it, the first chapter of 'Like a Lightning Bolt'. Basically this covers Harry's rationalisation and the changes to his base coursework for the third year onwards. Now, onto addressing the things I had as reference points for further explanation:**

**(1)** Madame Pomfrey is an exceptional Medi-Witch who shows a rather great deal of talent when working under pressure, in this story, the reason for her being like this is due to her helping the Order of the Phoenix, of which for my story Flitwick is a part of. This is what has allowed her to see Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Flitwick in combat.

**(2) & (3) **Taken directly from the Prisoner of Azkaban, as Stan doesn't know who Harry is, I see no reason why he would not tell this passenger asking who the escaped 'Death Eater' is and what he was charged with, rather than just, 'He's a murderer.'. Granted, had it been done in canon, the whole 'Ermahgerd Sirius is a good guy' thing wouldn't have really worked. But, for this, Harry has been reading into the Marauder's notes, including diagrams of their forms. Also seriously, nobody in canon questioned ONLY a finger being left, not even a big ass blood stain? Just a finger.

**There, now that's taken care of, some of you may be wondering what I meant when I said, 'Misguided Dumbledore' in the summary, well, I don't intend on him being the manipulative bastard trying to make Harry a weapon, in this he is just an old man, a good old man, but as I'm sure many of you have noticed, the elderly are stubborn. Also, naturally, as a result, Dumbledore did not place the Fidelius, Lily did, which is also why there was no Fidelius over the Longbottoms, meaning Dumbledore did not know of the change of Secret Keepers, because he wasn't there for it.**

**Now, my current intention is to attempt to release a chapter every 2 weeks, this gives me time to write them in between all of my coursework and etcetera activities, it will also allow me to flesh out my ideas a little better. At most, if I am struggling to wrestle anything from my muse, or I have a lot of work to do, I will throw out an interlude, a look into say, what the twins are doing or something, just a quick little chapter within my main story in order to let you know why I have not brought out a proper chapter as well as providing other characters insights into what's going on at the present time.**

**Until next time,**

**Lucison.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Welcome readers to the second chapter of 'Like a Lightning Bolt'. Last time we saw the changes rendered by Harry and Poppy having a discussion, the talk he had with McGonagall after including Minerva giving Harry a copy of the Marauder's notes and sending him to other teachers for Lily's, the consequent impact this had on Harry's first run in with Sirius, including the thought process this inspired, and a more realistic approach to Shunpike talking with someone about Sirius Black when they admitted they didn't know what he did. Oh yeah, and Harry conned Fudge into signing his Hogsmeade note, unlike in canon.**

**Now, I don't intend on doing a recap after every chapter, just these first few. Oh yeah, before I forget, considering it is appearing for the first time, the worth of a Galleon is going to be about $25, keep in mind I am Australian, so, my costs will be based around what I think that will be. I also intend on explaining how Muggleborn students are able to obtain their money, and will do so in this chapter.**

**I am going to address a couple of points that people have brought up in reviews, not answering each one individually, just answering questions that more than one reviewer asked or seem like they will be asked multiple times.  
1. McGonagall gave Harry the notes not because they were just the Animagus transformation, but because they were the collective notes of the Marauders. Harry is after all the only child any of the Marauders have had, she therefore considers the book his.  
2. Will the talk about Snape affect how Harry acts around him? Yes. Will this be positive. I don't know.  
3. Hermione is one of the characters who will be OOC, so will Ron. Hermione's is described below, Ron's will be next chapter.  
4. It has been a long time since I have read the Chamber of Secrets, and I don't own it anymore after my copy was wrecked by my mum's puppies, so I wasn't able to fact check this. I was pretty sure that the Weasley family all left with Ginny right after Harry brought her back, hence Ron doesn't find out about Harry's course change. If this isn't the case, I apologize, and I will go back and edit the first chapter to show that when I post the third. Hermione's reason is addressed in this chapter.  
5. The gap between the McGonagall part and Harry leaving the Dursley's was because my plot was literally Harry just reading his mother's Charms notes and the Marauder's notes. I felt that writing that out would have been seen as expanding my word count with pointless information, hence, it was left out.  
**

**6. The big one from the last chapter that was also pointed out to me by people who I know. Poppy doesn't have a large interaction with the students unless they are her patients, therefore she wouldn't have known about the rift between Snape and Lily till 6th year, after all the OWLs take place rather close to the end of year, so she wouldn't have had a large chance to notice a difference between them.**

**This chapter shows Hermione's OOC change, which is shown as the reduction in her over the top tendencies. I don't have much to say here without giving away anything that I want to show in the next few chapters so, without further ado, the disclaimer, and then the chapter.**

"**Speech"  
'Thoughts'  
"**_**Spells**_**"  
**_**Book Names**_

**Disclaimer: Was there a secret that one character had that his name gave away? *Cough*Remus Lupin*Cough* If so, then I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter Two**

It had been a few days since Harry had arrived at Diagon Alley, he'd used the time to review the books for his first two years, taking advantage of being in the Cauldron. On the first day when Tom found Harry reading his Transfiguration book at breakfast, Tom let him in on the secret that most Muggleborn and Muggle Raised students were unaware of, that in a place full of adult wizards, the Ministry can't track your magic. As a result, Harry had practiced every spell he had learnt again in order to make sure he had them down properly. He had moved onto the third year books the night before, going over all of them in a little bit of detail in order to see what his workload would be like. Much to Harry's surprise, he found he was quite good at Runes, although he hadn't practiced them just yet, he had managed to breeze through the book in one night.

Harry had also visited the book store with one goal in mind, get a book on the Goblins of Gringotts' culture**(1)**, and find out more about the people who handled his money. Harry did not want to risk upsetting them. After reading the book on the first day Harry had gone and gotten an audit of his accounts, surprising him in that there was more than the one he knew of**(2)**. Finding out that the Trust Vault is just supposed to provide him with money until his 17th birthday, when he would become an adult and be able to claim his family's lordship and title**(3)**. Harry of course asked them to supply him with a book of what he was supposed to do as a lord**(4)**, intending on reading it in his spare time, to prepare him for what he would have to do when he became an adult.

Finding out that the Trust Vault is refilled from the Potter Family Vault every single July 31st, Harry decided to do the intelligent thing, asking them if there was some kind of money bag he could get that would allow him to carry a vast amount of money. For the fee of 25 Galleons, something that Harry realized was in fact quite a small amount from his entire family fortune, the Goblins were more than willing to provide him with a money bag**(5)**, that could be blood tied to him and whoever he deemed permission to access it, which would allow him to hold as much money as he wishes, remaining weightless regardless, due to the runes weaved into the bag. That information peaked Harry's interest in the art even more, and after paying and emptying his Trust Vault, for a grand total of 5,000 Galleons**(6)** (Including Knuts and Sickles), Harry intended on buying more books than just the ones that were part of his standard kit that the Minister had acquired for him.

Harry was currently sitting in front of Fortescue's, reading some more of the Marauder's notes. The first few pages, ten in total, were simple conversations on paper between the Marauders, allowing Harry to identify who wrote what pages. From this information, he realised he was reading a part written in the handwriting of Sirius Black. He was writing about an argument he and Harry's father had with Wormtail, Wormtail getting yelled at by the two of them for using his Animagus form to sneak into the girls showers**(7)**. Apparently his Animagus form was very useful for sneaking into places. They also kept making references to a map, a map they had tied into the wards which would supposedly allow them to view not only any place within the school, but also where everyone within the school. A point of interest that Harry had read by Moony was that this would only track students, past and present of the school, as well as faculty, due to the wards having their magical signatures identified**(8)**.

When Harry reached the end of the page the subject had changed, it was now talking about a prank Sirius pulled on a Slytherin seventh year girl who the Marauder's had caught bullying a Muggleborn first year Puff. Harry was reading the details that Sirius went into, sneaking after her as Padfoot, he turned the page just as Sirius started writing what he had done when she was walking by the Three Broomsticks, and slammed the book closed at the hand drawn diagram of the seventh year's lower body, which Sirius had seen when he tore off her underwear and skirt as Padfoot. Blushing, Harry realized that yeah, his dad and his friends were sometimes more bully then prankster. Unfortunately for Harry, having slammed the book closed whilst blushing so bright it looked like he was glowing, was the time that Harry's female friend Hermione popped up, smiling brightly at having found him at the Alley.

"Harry!" The bushy haired girl shouted as she saw him, "Wait, why are you blushing?"

"H-Hermione?! What are you doing here? And, well, um, someone put a crude drawing in the book." Harry got quite flustered at the end, not looking Hermione in the eye.

"Who would do that?" Shaking her head in disgust at the notion of someone defiling a book like that, "Anyway, my parents and I just got back from France, and rather than having me pack my bags again in a week, they agreed to let me stay at the Cauldron till we catch the Express." Hermione beamed a smile at him at the end of that, "What about you?"

"I'm staying at the Cauldron too, have been for a few days now, just been rereading my course books, started on this year's last night. Even got all my homework done!" Harry was excited, waiting for the reaction on his best friend's face.

"Oh Harry that's excellent! If you want I can go over your work later to proofread it. Oh yeah, my parents finally agreed to letting me get a pet, want to come with me?" Hermione's happy smile broke into an excited grin as she began bouncing on her toes. Harry smiled as he remembered how she would always look at him and Hedwig with an envious look.

Agreeing, Harry packed up his book, on purposefully making sure Hermione didn't see, intentionally annoying her by not letting her see what he was reading until she snapped and asked. Making their way to the pet store, Harry decided to let her know about a letter he got from Ron the night before.

"Ron sent me a letter, he and his family are in Egypt, and they won a lottery and so went to visit his brother Bill. They were meant to get back early today, but the Egyptian Ministry apparently had a mix-up on when the return portkey, whatever that is, was supposed to be, so, they are getting back the day before we go to Hogwarts."

"Well at least we know he is having fun." Hermione smiled at him as he opened the door for the pet store.

As they walked in Harry went up to the front desk to pick up some owl treats for Hedwig, while he was doing so, Hermione began looking at all the pets on display. When Harry grabbed the bag of bacon flavoured, Hedwig's favourite, owl treats, he stood in line, in front of him appeared to be a first year, who was apparently talking to the witch behind the counter about buying what appeared to be a garden rat.

"Now, you do realize kid that a garden rat only lives about 3 years, if your heart is set on a rat as a pet, than you may want to choose one of the more magical varieties of rat available in the cages over by that wall." Said the witch, waving her hand in the direction of a group of cages that included rats of many different colours and sizes.

"That's ok ma'am, my mother said if I could look after something like a rat for a few years, then she would let me get a cat, because she would know that I can handle it.**(9)**" Replied the boy, handing over the money that was clearly discussed before Harry's arrival.

"Excuse me, you said an ordinary garden rat will only live for about 3 years? Have you ever heard of one living for around ten?" Asked Harry, remembering Ron talking about how long Percy had Scabbers before Ron got him.

"I think by that point the rat would probably be nothing but bones," Said the woman after the little boy had walked off, "Now, what can I do for y-"

The woman's sentence was interrupted by an orange blur bouncing off her head and straight into the arms of Hermione, who had just walked up to the counted to ask Harry if he had any suggestions for a pet. When Harry turned around and looked at Hermione, he saw a look on his face that just screamed that she had found her familiar, and, judging by the way the orange cat was curling into her, the cat had found its mistress.

With Hermione off in her own little world with what Harry knew would be her new familiar, Harry made a decision, and, turning back to the witch at the counter, who Harry realized was gaping at the cat in Hermione's arms as if it was a miracle, Harry got her attention.

"How much for these owl treats," Harry whispered, making sure Hermione couldn't hear him, "and the cat, as well as everything you would need to take care of it."

"The owl treats? 8 Sickles. The things needed to take care of the cat, including about 3 months of treats? 5 Galleons. The cat itself?" Here the woman paused, once again looking past Harry at the cat within Hermione's arms, and returning to the quiet whispered conversation with Harry, "She can have the cat for free, if it likes her, I am not dealing with him if she leaves without it."

Nodding his head and handing over the money without even blinking, Harry accepted the weightless bag carrying the cat care products and slipped the owl treats into his own bag. With Hermione still off in her own world with the cat, Harry slowly led her out of the store, reaching the exit before Hermione even registered what was going on.

"Crookshanks," she muttered, Harry barely catching it, "I will name you Crookshanks."

"And it's a lovely name for him Hermione, here's the stuff you'll need to look after him." Harry handed her the bag, holding in laughs at her quizzical look.

"But I haven't even bought him yet." She said, quite obviously not realizing they were no longer in the pet shop.

"Hermione, I paid for everything, don't worry, and Crookshanks was free. By her reaction, he and the lady at the counter don't get along." Harry was laughing at his friend zoning out on him and only just coming to the realization that they were no longer in the store.

"Harry! You didn't have to do that!" Hermione's attempts at giving Harry a glare were met only with Harry having to stifle more laughs.

"Look I apparently have MORE than enough money to pay 5 Galleons for a friend's new pet. Also, hey, look at it this way, you'll be able to spend the money from the Muggleborn Allowance on books, like you usually do." Harry gives Hermione a small smile, nodding his head towards the book store which he had been walking to the entire time.

The Muggleborn Allowance**(10)** was introduced by Albus Dumbledore shortly after the end of the blood war. By doing so, Dumbledore placated some more of the vocal pureblood supporters by providing a way for Muggleborns who were incapable of affording everything they needed in order to attend Hogwarts. By providing all Muggleborn students with a small amount of Galleons each year, it easily gave them more than enough to afford a full school kit second hand. In the case of Muggleborns like Hermione, they're parents were more than willing and able to pay for everything she needed, so she was able to use the allowance to buy more books on the various factors that interested Hermione in the Wizarding World. On average this allowance provides 12 Galleons for first years, most of which they are regulated in how they spend by the escorting teacher, who have them buy all of the things they require for their first year, as well as some crucial extras, such as daywear robes and informative books. For years 2nd through 5th they are given 6 Galleons, with years 6th and 7th being given 10 Galleons, allowing them to afford the more expensive equipment used for NEWT studies, as well as providing the more frugal students with a small amount of money they could save for when they left the school.

Naturally, upon being informed that she would have more money for books, Hermione's smile was so wide Harry was a little worried it might hurt. Grabbing his hand and taking him to the Cauldron, Hermione showed Harry which room she was in, consequently only 3 doors down from Harry's. Dropping off Crookshanks and all of his care products, Hermione reached into one of the bags leant against the wall, pulling a small bag out, Harry recognised it as one of the Gringotts bags, clearly meant to hold more money then what Hermione just casually carried around. Emptying its contents onto the bed, Harry saw Hermione begin counting out exactly how much she had to spend.

"Before you decide that you are going to spend all your money on books Mione, you may want to remember that we are going to be able to go to Hogsmeade this year." Harry's smile showed that he was only teasing with what he said.

"Oh, right, umm, I'll save about 5 Galleons for Hogsmeade," Nodding to herself, Hermione slid 5 Galleons, plus a few Knuts and Sickles back into the bag, Hermione stopped as she turned towards Harry, "What did you just call me?"

"Oh, uhhh, I umm, I called you Mione. If, if you don't like it I won't call you that again!" Harry started waving his hands, looking just a little bit frightened that he may have upset her.

"No, it's ok, I, I've never had a good nickname before, most of the time it was just people teasing me." Hermione appeared sad at the end, clearly reminiscing about her childhood with primary school bullies. Before Harry could try and comfort her, remembering his own experiences with Dudley, Crookshanks had slinked over from where he had been exploring and curled up into her lap.

Smiling at how the cat was already cheering up his mistress, Harry decided to distract Hermione. Considering Hermione's little obsession with books, Harry decided the best way to cheer Hermione up was with the book store. Well, the book store and ice-cream, but he would be lying if he didn't say the ice-cream was because he wanted some. So getting to his feet, and offering his hand to the girl in front of him, he pulled her up, and they went to go and see the bookstore at his prodding, with Crookshanks leaping onto the bed to sleep as they got up to go.

"Harry?" Hermione's tone let Harry know that he was about to be interrogated just a little.

"Yes Mione?"

"That book you were reading when I showed up, what was it?"

"It was a book of handwritten notes, it's a collection of all of the notes taken that were shared between my father and his friends. It's got details on things like pranks they pulled, adventures they had, arguments they were in," Leaning closer to Hermione, whispering right by her ear, "Even how three of them became Animagi by the start of their 6th year to keep the fourth, who was a werewolf, company during his transformations."

"A-Animagi? Like Professor McGonagall?" Hermione's yelling whisper and face was quite entertaining for Harry to see.

"Exactly. So, shall we try some, 'beastly' pranks?" A sly smile made its way onto his face.

"Huh?"

"That's what they called it, they called it their beastly prank. Considering the descriptions they have of some of their pranks that they performed after they became Animagi, it fits. Not only that but, well, if we work together, it won't take as much time."

"I'm in. I know you're going to do it whether or not I help, so, I better help so you don't hurt yourself." The smile that had made its way onto her face showed Harry that Hermione was only teasing him.

Smiling at Hermione as they walked through the entrance of Flourish and Blotts, Harry immediately headed over to the Runes section. Harry decided to grab the rest of the books in the set as the introductory book required for the third year course, in total it was an additional three books, the 4th year book, the 5th year book and the book required for both years of NEWT level Runes. He also grabbed a book titled _Introductory Wards_, figuring that if he got through the 4th and 5th year books in his spare time, he should be able to understand the art of warding.

Walking through the aisles Harry saw a stack of at least 10 books next to Hermione who was currently in the Arithmancy aisle. Harry moved into the aisle for Care of Magical Creatures, figuring that at the least having a book or two to read on the subject might give him something to talk with Hagrid about during his spare time when he wasn't studying. After that he swung by the Transfiguration, Charms and Defence aisles. After a few minutes of hesitation, he also grabbed a couple of supplementary Potions books, figuring that with Snape not having anything to do with OWL and NEWT level testing, he should make sure he knows what he isn't learning in Snape's classes.

Walking up to the counter he placed the books that he picked out down. In total he had 4 Runes books, 2 books on Magical Creatures, 3 each for Transfiguration, Charms, and Potions, and finally 4 books on various aspects of Defence, 2 on spells, 1 on various duelling tactics, and the final being about using Transfiguration and Charms in duelling. In total the 19 books he bought came to 13 Galleons, 6 Sickles and 3 Knuts. With his books placed into a weightless Harry stood by waiting for Hermione, or at least, that was his plan, before he heard an annoyed growl coming from the last aisle she had gone down.

"Uhhh Mione?" Harry asked, sticking his head into the aisle, "What's wrong?"

"Too many." She mumbled back.

"What was that?"

"Too many books, I can't buy them all, and the ones I can buy I won't be able to fit into my trunk, and I can't get a new trunk to fit all my books and things because if I do I can't buy the books and and-"

"Breathe Mione, Breathe."

"So-Sorry, I, just, just having a little panic attack." Hermione was waving her hands in front of her face, clearly fanning herself.

Harry stopped, trying to figure out what he could do to help his friend. Watching her as she continued to mutter to herself over which books she should get and how she was going to fit them in her trunk, Harry got an idea.

"Mione," Harry lightly called to get her attention, "Mione," Still being ignored, Harry realized he needed to be a bit more forceful, "Hermione!"

"Huh?!" Hermione jumped when she heard him yell her name, "What is it Harry?"

"I have an idea, a way to fix your current problem."

"I'm listening."

"Which of these books can you afford?" Hermione pointed to the pile on her right, "Well then, I am buying you that pile," Harry pointed to the pile on her left, "And a new trunk, consider it an early birthday present."

"No Harry, you don't have to do that, I'll just get only a couple of new books." Hermione started, reaching to take only 4 books from the pile on her right.

"Mione, you're my friend, I have the money, considering I have the money, I would rather spend it on my friends then on nothing."

"I'll, I'll agree on one condition" Hermione said holding up a single finger, "Uhh, actually, on second thought, two conditions," Holding up a second finger, seeing Harry nod, she continued, "One, when you buy me a new trunk, you get one too," Nodding once again to show his agreement, he waved Hermione to continue, "And two," Hermione tapered off mumbling.

"I, I did not catch that last part." Harry said, slightly worried about what it might be if Hermione was nervous about saying it.

"And two, we buy you new clothes. Seriously, those clothes are massive which means they clearly aren't meant for you."

"Deal." Harry grinned as he picked up the pile on her left, letting her pick the one up on her right. Taking the books, 27 in total, before Hermione could even reach for her purse, Harry had already paid for the full set, taking the bag and walking towards the door.

"Harry!"

"Birthday present!" Harry replied in a sing song voice. Harry poked his tongue out at her as he began walking towards Tulitzer's Trunks**(11)**, a shop that Tom, upon seeing the state of Harry's trunk, told Harry sold custom trunks.

Walking into the store with Hermione behind him, Harry began to look around, not wanting to bother the owner if he was working just yet. Harry and Hermione were both looking at the multi-compartment trunks, thinking they could get ones with space for clothes, etcetera items, and books.

"Ah, I thought I heard the door," Harry and Hermione turned to see the owner, a man who kind of reminded Harry of Ollivander, was standing by the counter, just beside the now open workshop door, "Welcome to my store, I am Marius Tulitzer. So, what can I help you two with?"

"Well, we both need new trunks, we were looking for multi-compartment trunks actually," Harry began walking up to the counter, leaving Hermione to keep looking at the options, "Um, just a question sir, but, are you related to Mr Ollivander?"

"Garrick? Why yes, he's my cousin, on the mother's side. Now, you do understand those aren't cheap right son?" The man got quiet at the end, quite clearly realizing that Harry may not want Hermione to know the cost, "If you're buying one for you and your lady friend that could get quite expensive."

"That's all right sir, I'm more than willing to pay. How many is the maximum number of compartments?"

"The most compartments I can install is 7, however those ones have 2 set options, one being a small potions storage compartment for ingredients and phials, with the other being a general storage compartment. The others can be of any of the options, a further general storage or potions storage compartments, as well as a book shelf compartment, capable of holding approximately 250 books, and a small clothing wardrobe compartment."

"What options are there for appearances?"

"I can make the trunks out of a variety of woods," Marius slid a small sample panel of woods over for Harry to look at, "As well as a variety of leathers for decorative purposes, the higher quality leathers also allow for stronger enchantments to be weaved into the trunk." Marius showed a sample of leathers, indicating the stronger ones as he mentioned them.

"What enchantments are you able to place on the trunks?" As Harry asked, Hermione began walking over.

"Well, fireproofing and waterproofing charms are placed as standard. I can make the trunks weightless, for an additional 7 Sickles. I can place verbal password locks, of which you can change at will, for 5 Sickles. Magical Signature locks for 1 Galleon and 8 Sickles or Blood locks for 1 Galleon, both will allow for you to add anyone you wish to the access list. The various security enchantments can be weaved into the lock, with the more expensive locks allowing for more, drastic, enchantments. Deterrence Charms for 2-16 Sickles and they require at least the password locks. Various, ahh, penalty, charms can be placed on the Magical Signature or Blood locks, they extend from about 1-7 Galleons."

"Ok, I would like to purchase a 7 compartment trunk, containing a wardrobe, 2 general storage compartments, and 2 book shelf compartments as the additional 5 compartments. I would like for it to have this wood," Pointing at a black coloured wood listed as costing an additional 2 Galleons, "With, this dragonskin in place of the standard leather," Harry pointed to a silver looking dragonskin on the leather options, "I would like for it to be weightless, with a Magical Signature lock and Deterrence Charms as security measures, the strongest ones for the available dragonskin." Just as Harry finished talking, the man flickered his eyes towards Harry's forehead, as his hair rubbing shifted his fringe aside.

"Would you also like for me to have your family emblem placed upon the trunk? Only 9 Sickles," Offered Marius, showing Harry that he wasn't going to make a deal about who he was, "I can also put the usual design engraved upon trunks by the Potters, the past three generations of your family all had that engraved upon it, so, naturally I still have the stencil, that would be free of charge."

"Yes, to both of those please, can the engraving by coloured in silver? To match the dragonskin."

"Of course my boy. Now, what of you my dear?" Marius turned from Harry, handing him the order sheet and getting his ok being able to afford it, showing another below it ready for Hermione's order.

"Ummm." Hermione bit her lip, not sure what she should order.

"You can get a 7 compartment trunk as well Mione, it's your gift."

"Ok, a 7 compartment, with one wardrobe compartment, 1 extra general storage compartment and 3 book shelf compartments. I would like it in this wood, with this dragonskin," Hermione pointed at a reddish brown wood and a black dragonskin respectively, "Also the same additional charms as Harry."

"That's fine, do you have a house emblem? And would you like any of these engraving designs, only 2 sickles." The man referenced several art designs behind him when he asked.

"Ah no, no family emblem, I'm a Muggleborn. I would however like the floral pattern with the roses and thorny vines on it," Hermione said, indicating the pattern she mentioned, "Can I get that coloured in black please?"

"Of course my dear," Handing Harry the sheet to make sure he can pay for the two trunks together, the man continued, "If you are able to pay for those my boy, I can have them made within two hours, all you will need to do is come and get them and pay for them in that time."

"Yes, I can pay for these, thank you sir, we will see you then." Bowing slightly to the man, Harry and Hermione walked out, going to have something to eat and drink at the Cauldron, Harry explaining his change of electives to Hermione, the two having been engrossed in books during the train trip with Harry reading the Marauder's notes from their pranking. The two went to get ice cream, each reading one of their books during the time they waited for their trunks to be finished. Returning to the shop two and a half hours later, Harry looked around to see if he could see the owner.

"Mr Tulitzer, are you there?" Harry called.

"Ah yes, there the two of you are, I'll just bring them out right now." Bringing the two trunks out into the front of the store, Marius set each of the locks to allow Harry and Hermione access, showing them how they add and remove permissions to access the trunks. While Hermione was admiring the detail on her trunk, Marius had Harry move to the side so he could have Harry pay.

"Alright Mr Potter, for the two trunks, with all of the additional features, the total value comes to 1376 Galleons, 13 Sickles, and 21 Knuts." Marius said quietly, ensuring Hermione didn't hear the price.

"Ok sir, and thank you for the fine work." Harry complimented the man as he handed over the money for the trunks.

"No need Mr Potter, just remember where to come if you ever need a new trunk." Said Marius, smiling at Harry the entire time.

"The trunks are paid for Mione, we can go."

"Thank you Mr Tulitzer!" Shouted back Hermione as they walked out.

"You're welcome my dear."

"So, what do you want to do?" Harry asked Hermione.

"Go get you new clothes, go check our homework, dinner, and then I guess it would be late enough for bed by then"

"Sounds like a plan."

* * *

**And there we have it, that took far longer than intended, when I was planning this chapter as I sat down to write it, my intention was for this to only be a small portion of the chapter. The bit with the rat? Figured it needed to be there, my replacement for Ron not getting Scabbers checked.**

**Now, the numbers:**

**(1**) I figure a character raised in the Muggle world would naturally be curious about the race who have their own culture and are in charge of his money.

**(2) **I imagine James and/or Lily would make sure that Harry would have money just in case they didn't make it, Harry would have money to live on. Naturally, I imagine this would not be all of the family's accounts.

**(3)** I am assuming the Potters would be an important family, after all, I am going with the Charlus Potter and Dorea Potter nee Black being Harry's grandparents. With the Black family being an important family, I would assume the Potter's would be equal to or more so.

**(4) **If I were the Goblin's I would make sure the Lord-to-be who isn't a stick up his ass bastard to them knows what he has to do when he becomes a Lord. Make them look good, they have a Lord more willing to help them and stick up for them.

**(5) **Lazy ass purebloods carrying heavy bags of money? No. Going through the effort to make them weightless themselves? Not when they can pay for someone else to do it.

**(6) **With Harry's grandfather being able to marry a Black, I would imagine he had quite a large family fortune, with James not having much access to it due to the war, and then 10 years of interest from when Tom attacked, I would imagine the family will easily have a lot of money in the coffers.

**(7) **Horny pathetic teenager able to turn into a rat in an old castle that is a boarding school? No way in hell he didn't do that.

**(8)** Identified by the Sorting Hat of course.

**(9) **A common method for parents, from what my friends have said, for the parents to make sure the child is able to look after the pet. Would make more sense to get something cheap and with a decent but not too large lifespan for this, especially with the child taking the pet to a boarding school.

**(10) **A way I came up with for a regular family who has more the one child with magic being able to afford to send both their kids to Hogwarts. Yes, the Creevey brothers were who I was thinking of when I thought of this in conjunction with my prices. Also orphans like Riddle.

**(11)** My first OC, because at the time of writing I did not have internet and so just made up a trunk store, rather than being able to see if there actually was one.

**Ok, so, next chapter SHOULD be when the gang head back to Hogwarts, should be. Hopefully I don't string out a small section into a massive section again.**

**Until next time,**

**Lucison.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello and welcome to the third chapter in my first multi-chapter story 'Like a Lightning Bolt'. Another minor recap of my changes prior to the school year. Harry found out he has a lot of money and a talent for Runes, Harry and Hermione visited the pet shop and got Crookshanks without Ron, who is still in Egypt. Harry bought Hermione and himself brand new multi-compartment trunks and Hermione made Harry get a new wardrobe, no more cast offs for Harry Potter.**

**Some points made last chapter:1. Yes it is a lot of money, however, those charms and materials are expensive.  
2. Yes, forced cliche, however I prefer cliche shopping trip to people being annoyed he suddenly has this stuff and demanding to know why.  
3. Weightless and Feather-light are the same thing, different people call them differently in my story, sorry I did not make that point in a footnote.  
4. I use footnoted, I am not the only author who does, don't complain, it won't change.  
**

**This chapter introduces the slight change of personalities I have for Ron, the twins don't really have a change, its more of how I imagine they would react in the situation.**

"**Speech"  
'Thoughts'  
"**_**Spells**_**"  
**_**Book Names**_

**Disclaimer: If a giant three headed dog named Fluffy could just vanish into thin air after the first book, I do not own Harry Potter. Seriously though, I would've had a scene with Grawp playing with Fluffy and the Trio getting horrified that Fluffy has been there the whole time.**

**Chapter 3:**

Waking up the day before heading off to Hogwarts, Harry decided to go through his trunk one more time, to make sure everything is packed where it needs to be packed. Of his two book shelf compartments, the first one on the rotation, handled by a nifty little spin dial located just above the lock, which was numbered as compartment 5, contained all of the books for this year's classes, as well as additional reading on the subjects, any of the books he had already read that he figured may have relevance for assignments, and most importantly, his parent's notebooks. Compartment 6, his second book shelf, contained the previous two years books as well as his Care of Magical Creatures books, his book on the duties of a lord, his book on Goblin culture, and several books he had bought the day before after a discussion with Hermione, including a few simplified books on law in the Wizarding World and a beginners guide to learning French. The interest in French came from finding out Hermione could speak it, figuring that if he too learnt the language it would allow the two to talk around people they don't trust to hear the subject of their discussions.

In Harry's clothing compartment, numbered 4, included all of Harry's new clothes, including new sets of robes for wearing during any important meetings Harry may have to have in the Wizarding World in which Muggle clothing may not be acceptable. The Muggle outfits, bought with pounds exchanged from Galleons for shopping in London, included several outfits that Hermione deemed nice, Harry just deemed them comfortable and fitting. Compartment number 3 contained all of Harry's Quidditch gear, his broom, broom servicing kit, a practice snitch bought for him first year by Wood, the dragonhide Seeker's gloves bought for him last year by the Chaser's, and his Gryffindor team uniform.

Compartment number 2 contained Harry's school supplies, things like parchment, quills, and ink. Hermione was quite upset with him when she found out he also included the prank set the Twins had gotten him in his 'School Supplies' compartment, until he reminded her that he just wanted to have a little bit of fun, if that fun involved Malfoy getting Dungbombs in his pants, Harry wasn't going to complain. Of course, that sort of fun would only occur if Harry's intended discussion with Draco, primarily to do with some of the research Harry had done into his family and then into known relatives, did not go as he hoped.

Compartment number 1 was Harry's general storage space, things like the photo album Hagrid made for him in first year were included in this compartment. The final compartment, number 7, was the potion storage compartment, after a recommendation from Tom, Harry had gotten some nutrient potions, recommended for wizards or witches suffering from malnourishment, like Harry. These potions were being stored in the phials section of the compartment, right near the top to make it easier to fetch one out before a meal. Harry kept a large stock of ingredients in here as well, figuring that he wouldn't need to break into Snape's stores if he had some of the less common ingredients at hand.

Just as Harry finished checking his trunk over, there was a knock at his door. Harry immediately knew who was behind the door, recognizing the little tune Hermione had a habit of tapping out when she knocked on doors. Getting up, giving Hedwig a treat as he went by her bedside perch, Harry opened the door to see his bushy haired friend reading a book, however, catching the flicker of her eyes, he knew she wasn't zoned out like she had a habit of getting just yet.

"Morning Mione, was just checking my trunk over again, don't want to risk leaving anything behind or having to rush to pack tomorrow." Harry said, smiling at her.

"Morning Harry," Hermione pulled a bookmark out of her hair, surprising Harry, as this was clearly a new trick she had figured out, either that or the fact that Hermione so rarely stopped reading a book before finishing it to never see the bookmark before, "I was too, walking over to the station is going to require us leaving earlier if we want to avoid the Floo," Nodding his head while his face turned a little green, Harry was making it quite obvious his feelings on that idea, "Anyway, want to head down and get breakfast?"

"Yeah, I'm starving, let me just grab the book I was reading last night." Nodding her affirmative, Hermione watched as Harry walked in and picked up a book even she wasn't quite able to understand yet, still marvelling at Harry's apparent natural skill with Runes having made understanding the theory in the 3rd through 5th year books easy for him. Harry himself was quite amazed when he realized yesterday at breakfast that he had already read through the entire OWL level Runes books, and, with Hermione's prompting, had started on the warding book he purchased, figuring that if he could understand the concept quickly enough he might be able to read through his mother's notes on the subject.

As Harry walked down the stairs with Hermione to the ground floor of the Cauldron, Harry remembered his own surprise when he went back up to his room to grab the warding book and had noticed out of the corner of his eye that the Marauder's notebook was a bit more than a few sheets of parchment bound in leather. Harry had gotten so distracted trying to decipher the runic array that made up what he had previously assumed was simply designs put on the leather by one of the Marauder's, that Hermione had actually come up looking for him. Harry had only managed to decipher that the notebook was actually a much larger collection of notes from all of the Marauders, that spanned THOUSANDS of pages, with the ability to use the inside cover as a form of index to find specific subjects. Harry only just realizing that the only reason why he had been reading notes passed and prank descriptions being that was what was placed as the first sets of pages in the book.

"The sheepish look again, I take it that means you are mentally berating yourself for not noticing how the Marauder's had set out the book?" Hermione grinned at Harry, before Harry could retort, there were suddenly two people standing opposite them so quick, Harry would have sworn they apparated had they been old enough.

"Did we just hear Hermione right?" Began one of the red headed twins, "That our Harrykins has a book written by THE Marauders?" finished the other, the shock clearly written on their faces.

"Oh, hi guys, when did you get here? Where's Ron?" Harry purposefully ignored the question they asked to see their reactions.

"The git is stuffing his face over there," Left twin waved his hand vaguely behind them, "And an hour ago. Now quit dodging the question!" Right twin finished, the shock reducing their usual headache inducing twin speak into a less convoluted form.

"Yes, yes I do, and I will let you see it on two conditions," Harry raised his left hand holding up two fingers, seeing the duet nod, Harry continued, "Firstly, you tell me how you know about the Marauders," Nods met this declaration, the two of them clearly only waiting to hear the final condition before answering, "And secondly, what you're doing now, the half a sentence each, is the worst your twin speak is allowed to get around me and Hermione, Deal?" Harry stuck out his hand for the two of them to shake.

"Not Ron?" Asked Left, "Just you two?" Clarified Right.

"Yep, I'm not going to take away your right to mess with your sibling, it's your job after all." Smiling as the duet shook his hand ecstatically.

"We can do that," Began Left, Harry was really tempted to ask them who was meant to be Gred and who was meant to be Forge, just so he didn't have to keep calling them by their sides, "But we will tell you at school, but only you Harry," Continued Right, "We don't want our mother getting wind of it." They finished together. Nodding their heads, Harry and Hermione resisted the urge to laugh when the two performed an overly exaggerated bow before them.

"Ummm, is that Percy…. STRUTTING?" Asked Hermione, disbelief being the first thing she expressed upon noticing the twins older brother walking behind them.

"Yeah, he's acting like a right git," Left replied, "Acting all high and mighty cause," Right tapered off, "I'm Head Boy." Chorused the two together, clearly making fun of the rule abiding sibling.

Waving to the twins goodbye, Harry and Hermione swung by the bar, ordering their breakfast from Tom and saying hello to Mr and Mrs Weasley, who informed them that they were renting out rooms in the Cauldron for the night, purely to keep the kids from unpacking as soon as they got home. Denying the invitation to go through the Floo with the Weasley family, a small grin working its way onto Harry's face as he figured out a way to get the twins alone earlier, knowing that Ron would outright refuse to walk to the station from the Cauldron when he could just Floo there.

Waving goodbye to the Patriach and Matriach of the Weasley clan, the two headed over to where Mr Weasley, or Arthur as he insisted on being called, pointed out Ron, who, just like the twins said, was having breakfast. Taking a seat next to their oblivious friend, Harry smiled as he came up with an idea of what he was going to do. Seeing Tom begin to bring their food over, Harry leaned over and preparing to scare the crap out of Ron, Harry took in a breath.

"BOO!" Ron leapt so high off his chair that he nearly missed in while falling back down due to the frightened flailing.

"WHA-HA-WHO-WHA? HARRY?!" Ron's confused gaze made Harry and Hermione burst out laughing, "What the HELL was that for? And when did you get there?"

"About 2 minutes ago," Harry stopped and thanked Tom as he placed the plates down, "We were saying hello to the twins and your parents."

"Being ambushed and questioned by the twins isn't exactly saying hello Harry. Have you managed to do your homework Ron?"

"Bloody hell, knew I forgot to do something." Ron muttered, a little louder than what he meant it to be, judging by how he tried to avoid looking at Hermione's judging stare.

"Well, you might want to get it done today Ron, considering we go back tomorrow. Wouldn't want Snape to have more reason to hate you." Harry and Ron ignored Hermione's muttered correction of Snape's name. As Harry began to eat, he leaned over and opened his book to the page he had been up to, reading on a form of small area warding that doesn't require a wardstone, only a small runic array.

"So, how long have you two been here?" Asked Ron, not actually looking up as he went back to eating.

"I've been here for two weeks, Hermione got here a week ago," Harry muttered over his book, "Oh yeah, Mione got a cat."

"You WHAT?!" Ron's shout was only just discernable over the food in his mouth.

"I got a cat, his name is Crookshanks." Hermione muttered over her book, only half paying attention to the conversation, her attention more focused on reading and eating.

"Why would you get a c- is Harry READING at the breakfast table?!" Ron's sudden realization that Hermione wasn't the only one reading quite thoroughly distracted him from the subject of Crookshanks.

"Uh yeah?" Harry's eyebrow raised as he tried to figure out the reason behind Ron's scepticism, "Why is that such an alarming thing? I read."

"Harry, you like, never read. Why, is the book about Quidditch? Cause if so, then I understand."

"No, it's an introductory book on warding, primarily the simple stuff, like warding a small area to keep people away from it and such."

"Simple stuff? Bill only ever mentioned anything like that when he was like, a seventh year!" Ron's wide eyes showed his disbelief at the notion of something his eldest brother found annoying to learn being deemed simple.

"I get Runes." Harry's simple response was backed up by a shrug, Harry's way of showing he didn't understand why, just that he did.

"Huh?" Ron turned to Hermione, who had looked over her book to see what Ron was getting louder over.

"He gets Runes," She shrugged as well, not really knowing if there was a better way to convey their lack of understanding on the how, "He read the 3rd through 5th year books for it in a day and a half."

"Why would you even WANT to read books on Runes Harry?" Ron turned back to Harry, confusion being the most rampant expression upon his face.

"Because I'm taking it? I would have told you, but your parents took you and your siblings home after we pulled Ginny out of the Chamber."

"But, WHY would you change your subjects?"

"I want to take my studies seriously, I mean, honestly, and how helpful would Divination be against Voldemort?" Harry, not wanting to start an argument with Ron, decided to change the subject, "Oh yeah, me and Mione are going to walk to the station early tomorrow so we don't have to use the Floo Network, want to walk there with us?"

"Um, how early is early, and how far a walk is it?"

"Well, we are going to leave here at about half past nine, we'll get there around about half past ten.**(1)**" Harry through the roundabout guess on the time to get there that he and Hermione had figured out while walking through London.

"Umm, no thanks, I'd prefer to use the Floo." Ron began to eat again, having calmed down while Harry was remembering the approximate time it took to get to the station.

"Okay, guess we will see you when you get there." Harry began to eat and read again, Hermione having gone back to reading once Harry changed the subject.

Once they had finished eating, Harry and Hermione went to go double-check with Tom that they didn't owe any more money on the rooms they rented for their stays. Upon receiving the all clear on the payments, Hermione went up to her room, to go and put her book back, while Harry, seeing the twins, decided to ask them now if they would like to walk with them.

"Gred, Forge, I have an alteration to our deal to propose." Harry said, sliding into the seat opposite the two.

"Well well, Harrykins has a proposition for us," began the one who nodded at Gred, "I think we should hear it out," continued Forge, "Well, we're listening." The two said at once.

"Instead of waiting till we get to Hogwarts, how about the two of you join me and Hermione tomorrow when we walk over to the station. Muggles won't know what we're talking about, and the chance of a witch or wizard hearing will be nearly nothing while we walk there. Plus, whatever you tell me I was going to tell her anyway."

"He has a point," "That he does, shall we agree?" "Get out of using the Floo?" "And escape Percy for longer," "It's a deal!" They both finished at once.

"Excellent, meet you guys down here tomorrow morning at half past nine, that's when we are leaving." Having finished his offer and receiving the confirmation from the twins that they understood, Harry got up and took his book up to his room, intending on having a relaxing day. After all, the day after he would be going to Hogwarts, and he didn't want to be too tired for that.

(Line Break)

Just as they had been told, the twins were ready and waiting to go at the entrance to the Leaky Cauldron at half past nine, having said goodbye to their parent's minutes before. After a last minute check with Ron to make sure he didn't want to go, the four set off from the Cauldron, trunks in tow, on their way to King's Cross station. After approximately five minutes of general conversation, they decided to get down to business.

"Alright, you want to see the book, so, how do you know about the Marauders?" Harry raised an eyebrow as he finished.

"From this!" Gred whipped out a blank piece of parchment, Hermione looked confused and Harry was a little excited, considering what it could possibly be, "We nicked it from Filch's office and figured out how it works," Forge turned to his twin as they prepared their big reveal, "The Marauders-"

"Map!" Shouted Harry, realizing as soon as they said they nicked it from Filch, remembering the passage he read where Wormtail had lost them the map by arguing with Filch.

"Hang on, you know what it is?" They chorused.

"Yes! My father mentioned it all the damn time in the book. He and Padfoot were furious with Wormtail when he got it taken off him!" Harry was keeping his hands clenched, resisting the urge to grab the map off of them.

"Your dad?" Gred said, mouth wide open in surprise, "James Potter was a MARAUDER?" Forge's jaw hung even lower than Gred's, "WHICH ONE!?" They shouted together.

"Prongs, my dad was Prongs, so named because he took on the Animagus form of a Stag, Padfoot was a Grim like Dog, Wormtail was a Rat, and lastly, Moony was a werewolf." Upon hearing this, the two twins turned to Harry, dropped to the floor into a kneeling position, and, like knights handing their king a sword, the two presented the map to Harry.

"Take it oh Son of Prongs," Began Gred, "It is our duty to pass this onto a Marauder's heir!" Finished Forge.

"Umm, right. I take it this is how you two always get away with your pranks?" Asked Hermione, deciding to enter into this part of the conversation, having read of the map and the basics of how it functions, Hermione was more than willing to allow the map to be out of a teacher's hands. Considering the teacher's effectively had one of their own in the Headmaster's office, though apparently he never checks it, considering Harry remembered seeing the table it was a part of shoved into a corner behind two bookcases, covered in dust.

"Why yes it is," "We learnt all the passages off by heart," "And with our knowledge of such," "We rarely use it anymore anyway!

"Well then, I will take it from you. Also, because you two have attempted to keep the Marauders alive through your own pranks and use of the map, I have another proposition for the two of you." Harry slipped the map into his back pocket, covering where it was sticking out with his shirt.

"What would this proposition be?" "If it's supposed to be on par with the map," "Then we want to know."

"Well," Leaning in closer to the two so only they could hear, "Hermione and I were going to continue another practice of the Marauders, we have already figured out everything in theory, we just need to work on the practical stuff once we get to the castle, which of course, you will be able to help with." At the twin's nods, Harry continued, "We are going to become Animagi, would you like to join us?"

"Hell!" "Yes!"

"Excellent, well then, we will need to figure out where we can brew a potion that is, well, even more illegal than say, the Polyjuice, to brew without government permission. Then it will just be working out how to change forms, something which will be made simpler by the Marauder's notes on the process from when they did it." The twins nodded, telling Harry that when they got to the train, they would show him a place on the map to go to for them to brew the potion without being detected.

The four continued walking, talking about things like Quidditch, which pranks they were going to pull, the twins talking about how they use the spot they were going to show them to brew all the potions they use in pranks, as well as practicing Potions work away from Snape, to ensure they get good Potions scores regardless of Snape's teaching. When that subject was brought up, Hermione became very interested, apparently, there was a teacher who Hermione despised, Snape having done a lot to personally contribute to her loss of absolute respect for all teacher's and authority figures.

Arriving at King's Cross at half past ten, the four began their way down to platforms 9 and 10. Reaching the barrier between Platform 9 ¾ and the Muggle world, as they had discussed on the way there, the group intended on passing through the barrier as inconspicuously as possible. The twins simply propped up against the barrier, before they allowed themselves to fall through it, pulling there trolleys at the same time. Harry and Hermione leaned up against the barrier, talking casually, Harry slowly pushing his and Hermione's trolleys through the barrier where the twins pulled them through, before the two of them ducked in as well.

After moving over to the twins and collecting their trolleys the four of them moved over to the train and began loading their luggage onto the train. Hermione's trunk was first, and, once both her trunk and Crookshanks were on the train, she moved to go and get a compartment for them. After helping Harry get his trunk and Hedwig's cage onto the train the twins waved him off, telling him they were going to go and meet up with Lee, a friend of theirs, to discuss some business. Walking down the train Harry saw a familiar head of blonde hair, Harry decided now was the best time to talk to Malfoy**(2)**, potentially curtailing Draco aggravating Ron, while also avoiding having this discussion with his Slytherin hating friend. Knocking on the door and receiving a response, Harry opened the door.

"Potter? What are you doing here?" Draco sneered as he looked at Harry.

"Well Heir Malfoy," At the typical beginning of a political discussion, Malfoy's sneer left his face, "I, Heir Potter, would like to extend my apologies for my crass disregard of your hand of friendship at the beginning of our first year. At the time, I was woefully unaware of the political aspects of what I was doing, being raised by Muggles, and my reaction was therefore rude and uncalled for. I also apologise for any transgressions that have occurred between us since then as a result of that first meeting. I will however admit that the rudeness I displayed at the time was not entirely uncalled for, as at the time you were being rude to the first friend I had ever made, I merely reacted as any child raised in the Muggle world would. I would like to extend to you an offer of friendship, or at the very least neutrality, to you, as, in light of recent information I have obtained after looking into my family further, I believe it would benefit us the most to not be hostile to one another. Would you not say so, cousin?" Harry watched throughout his entire well-rehearsed speech as Draco's emotions danced through his eyes. Thanking Hermione internally for her help in making a sophisticated and political apology in accordance with the guidelines that were set in the books on politics he had read.

"I, for now, accept only the offer of neutrality. As you said, we have quarrelled in the past and going from hostile to friends might do more damage to any possible friendship we may have than if we at least manage at a level of neutrality first," Draco's diplomatic response made Harry smile, as this had been one of the better outcomes he and Hermione had theorised would occur, "On the subject of your apology, I accept it, and offer my own for my own part in how I acted at the beginning of our first year, and therefore all further transgressions. On the subject of our relation, I would be more than willing to inform my mother if you would also like to correspond with her, she being my connection to you, she is also one of the only two capable of giving you any information on the Black family, with Sirius a wanted criminal," Draco did not miss the flash of irritation in Harry's eyes, assuming it to be irritation at the man who betrayed his family, as opposed to Harry's annoyance at his deduction that Sirius was innocent, or at the least not a murderer, "And Aunt Bella locked up in Azkaban."

"Apology accepted, and I would like that, any chance to learn about any part of my heritage is alright with me, I actually sent my owl off with an introductory letter to our cousin Nymphadora, in the hopes that she might wish to correspond, or at judge for me whether or not her mother would be okay with me talking to her about the family that disowned her." Harry smiled at first, before a slight frown became apparent as he finished.

"Yes, I am well aware of how some family members can react to being questioned about their family after being disowned, not all of them are willing to speak about them, some can even become violent I have heard."

"Well than cousin, I must be off to find my compartment," Sticking out his hand, Draco shook it, muttering his own goodbye in response, "And goodbye to you as well Heirs Crabbe and Goyle." The two brutes, having remained quiet and seated, grunted as Harry left, not having a problem with him if Malfoy did not.

Shortly after Harry left Draco's compartment, Harry bumped into a classmate of his, Neville Longbottom. Greeting Neville and helping him up, while also remembering what he, Hermione, and Ron had done to Neville in first year, frowned a little, deciding that he should apologise for that as well. Also not seeing any harm in potentially having another good friend, Harry decided to speak.

"Neville, I realize it may be considered a little late for it, but," Taking in a deep breath, making sure he had what he wanted to say securely in his mind before he spoke, Harry continued, "Heir Longbottom, I, Heir Potter, do apologise for the attack on your person performed by myself, Ms Granger, and Mr Weasley during the end of our first year. It was not right of us to attack you, and it is even worse that no apology has been given until now."

"T-That's alright Ha-Heir Potter," Neville stuttered at first, not expecting the apology or the formal manner in which Harry spoke, "I refused to listen to why the three of you needed to leave. I was just worried about House Points and refused to be persuaded that whatever reason you came up with for sneaking out was right. I sort of forced Hermione's hand in the matter, and for that I apologise."

"Apology not needed Heir Longbottom," Harry smiled as he began, his tone of voice less formal, "As I'm sure you can tell Neville, I only recently learned of my future lordship and of my family's importance, after looking into it, I discovered that our families were allies in the past?"

"Yes. The Potter and Longbottom families were in an alliance for a long time. If, if you are getting at the possibility of rekindling the alliance, then I invite you to owl my grandmother," Harry picked up on Neville's slight shudder at the mention of the woman, "Dowager Longbottom, she can inform you of the recent political climate as well as help you with any possible questions you have about being a Lord."

"I will do just that, as it was my intention to rekindle our family alliance," Holding out his hand and shaking it with Neville, Harry cracked a large smile, "Now, have you got a compartment Neville? Because if not, Hermione should have found one for me, her and Ron if you would like to join us. Well, Ron isn't here yet, he decided to Floo here closer to the time, Hermione and I walked with the twins from the Cauldron."

"I would like that." Neville smiled, a little bit of confidence creeping onto his face as they began looking for Hermione. Passing a compartment with a shabby looking older man, Harry assumed him to be the new Defence Professor, they found Hermione, reading a book, in the very next compartment. She was not alone however, there appeared to be a blonde haired girl sitting in there as well, reading a magazine from the looks of it. By the trim of her robes, Harry assumed her to be a Ravenclaw**(3)**. The girl smiled up at the two as they entered the compartment, Harry sitting next to Hermione and Neville sitting next to the blonde haired girl, saying hello to Hermione as they sat down.

"Hello Harry Potter, hello Neville Longbottom." She said, a dreamy tone coming from her mouth as she spoke.

"Um, hi?" Both replied.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot you two don't know who I am. I am Luna Lovegood, 2nd year Ravenclaw." Luna nodded to herself as she finished, as reassuring herself that she got the facts right.

"Well it's nice to meet you Luna." Harry and Neville both smiled at her as Harry talked, Harry noticing a slight twitch on Hermione's face as he did so.

"Don't mind Hermione, she is just a little cross at me after our discussion on Magi-zoology." Luna smiled as if it was a perfectly normal occurrence. Catching Hermione mumbling about creatures that aren't in books, Harry grinned, coming up with a solution that might make Hermione either mad at him, or not so mad at Luna.

"You know Mione," Harry smiled as she lowered the book to look at him curiously, "Books don't have all the information, after all, someone had to have found the animal in order to document it properly to put it in a book in the first place. Which just means that nobody may have caught whatever creature wasn't in the books, so they don't have enough information on it to print it in books yet." Luna's gigawatt smile at Harry attempting to stick up for her made Harry himself smile. Hermione's shocked face as she realized that Harry was right, and that books were therefore not the be all end all of information, as there could still be information needed to be discovered, made Harry and Neville burst out laughing.

The foursome began to talk together, Hermione joining in after she got over her realization, while they waited for the train to leave and for Ron to show up.

(Line Break)

**There you go, the third chapter, things are starting to move along and we finally get to Hogwarts next chapter YAY! But first, here is the small number of notes for this chapter:**

**(1)** I have no idea how long it would take to walk from the Leaky Cauldron to King's Cross Station.

**(2)** This lordly stuff taking place on the train, hadn't intended on it at all, Draco was still an unknown and I wasn't sure how I was going to get Neville in the compartment. While trying to figure it out that just kind of seemed to flow out onto the page.

**(3)** Also completely unintentional, but then again, I did intend on Harry meeting her soon, Luna is far too awesome to be bullied and Harry and Neville won't stand for it.

**Now, still, at this point I do not have any pairings set aside, so, if you DO want to voice an opinion you may have, I am willing to listen, as long as it is a Het pairing that you justify and does not include Ginny or Ron, I am willing to listen.**

**Also, there is a large chance that I will be posting an Interlude, most likely about the Weasley's holiday in Egypt, which will actually cover some changes I am having Ron follow through with as well. This is mainly because I have a lot, and I mean A LOT more on my plate then I originally believed I would this Semester. Combining that with the difficulties I am having writing the main two points of the next chapter, an Interlude is of high likelihood.**

**Well, until next time,**

**Lucison.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello once again, welcome to the 4****th**** chapter of 'Like a Lightning Bolt'. That's it, I said I was only going to do a few recaps, so, if you want a recap, reread the last chapter, that usually works. I will say this though, this is the chapter where the bashing REALLY begins, I was a little bit mean last chapter now it gets worse. Also, yes, this chapter also displays my OOC changes, specifically, Ron is very OOC, and Hermione has a further display of her OOC. Also, slight changes to who is taking what.**

**Also, I will admit, I am not happy with this chapter, I couldn't get the situation down the way I wanted it, but, it needed to happen, and I could only get it as close as I did. That's all I'm saying.**

**Now, comments about the reviews: 1. Ron was mad in canon that Hermione got Crookshanks, considering everything, her getting Crookshanks in this story is worse.  
2. On the subject of the heirs stuff being cliché, it's cliché because it IS something that is a commonly seen problem with canon, therefore of course it gets used a lot.  
3. Please people do remember that characters ARE OOC, if they aren't acting 'how they should' it's because I don't think that is how they would act in the situation they are in or how they will act with the changes I have given their personality.  
4. Harry looked up Dementors enough to know that barely anyone wanted to get close enough to find out more about them, therefore, he intends on staying away, yes, he will look into them more later.**

**That's really, all, so, without further delay, here is the fourth chapter of Like a Lightning Bolt.**

"**Speech"  
'Thoughts'  
"**_**Spells**_**"  
**_**Book Names**_

**Disclaimer: Did the Tri-Wizard tournament have 2 tasks that just had spectators sitting there, twiddling their thumbs for ages? If so, I don't own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 4:**

Having sat with Luna and Neville for about 10 minutes now, Harry and Hermione were able to say that they quite enjoyed the company the two provided. Neville knew an amazingly large amount of information about Herbology, even admitting to having quite the large greenhouse at home, Harry made sure to file that information away for Christmas, knowing exactly what he should buy his, well, not really new, but still new, friend. Luna on the other hand, provided quite a lot of information on various magical creatures not in their books, admitting that some of them, such as Nargles, are her way of voicing interpretations she has of people, a habit she picked up from her deceased mother, whereas there really were animals such as the Crumple-Horned Snorkack, an animal that Luna and her Father has managed to see many times, but never capture for study.

It was to the laughs of Harry, Hermione and Neville, due to a story Luna was telling about one of her and her father's camping trips, to which Ron entered. Before anyone was able to say anything to him, Ron made his feelings known on one of the quartet's members.

"Loony? What are you doing here?" A scowl was present on his face as Ron muttered this out. Harry, Hermione and Neville, having been told by Luna of what she was called by bullies, didn't exactly take well to one of the people they consider a friend being one of those bullies, their own experiences with bullies in the past allowing them to know how Luna would feel being called such a name.

"What the hell Ron?" Harry began, ignoring Hermione's shouted 'Language!' as he continued, "Why would you call her that?"

"Mate, she's crazy, trust me, she was friends with Ginny growing up, she's ALWAYS been Loony." Ron was standing there, completely ignorant to the emotions running across his friend's face.

"No she isn't Ron, Luna is a perfectly normal girl, it's not right for you to call her that!" Neville's rather loud input surprised everyone, not expecting the quiet boy they knew to so loudly announce his opinion. Ron muttered something in reply, however it was missed by everyone who was looking at Neville, "What was that Ron?"

"Hmph, I said of course the Squib thinks she is nor-" Ron never got to finish as, before anyone could react, Hermione has slapped him so hard his face smacked into the door frame, dropping him to the floor.

"…. Wow" Harry was only able to sum up what he had seen with that one word.

"WHAT THE HELL HERMIONE!" Ron roared as he pulled himself up, "Why did you bloody hit me!"

"Because you," She pokes him in the chest, "Ronald. Bilius. Weasley," A poke followed every part of his name, "Are being an intolerant, obnoxious, BULLY!"

"What? I'm just telling it like it is!"

"Ron," At the near quiet fury behind Harry's voice, Hermione and Ron both turned to face him, "Apologise, to both of them, now."

"What? Why? I don't need to apologise!" Ron's face showed his confusion.

"Yes you do Ron, now, either apologise, or get out. We were having a nice, fun conversation, then you came in and began insulting Luna and Neville, who do not deserve to be insulted. So, apologise, NOW!" Harry, realized that while he was being aggressive, he was defending his friends, and therefore, Ron being a friend or not, Harry was not going to be sorry about it.

"I'm NOT apologising to THEM!" Ron shouted, pointing at Neville and Luna as he did so.

"Then if you refuse to apologise, leave. You may be my friend Ron, but I consider these two my friends as well. I will not tolerate anyone insulting my friends. Hell, unless someone else starts it, I refuse to allow anything that risks recreating Halloween First Year Ron," Hermione stiffens slightly when Harry mentions this, "Well, what are you going to do Ron?"

"Are you seriously choosing THEM over ME Harry? I'm your best mate!"

"Ron, you aren't my best friend. It may be hard for you to understand this, but while you were my first friend, Hermione is my best friend. Now, Neville and Luna are people I can consider friends now too," Harry, from where he was standing, did not see the reactions of the three behind him, Hermione blushing, not realizing that Harry considered her that great a friend, Neville smiling, realizing that he had someone he could call a friend, and Luna, her beaming smile at being considered a friend by someone put even Neville's smile to shame, "So Ron, if you want to sit in this compartment for the trip, you WILL apologise, right now, otherwise, you can go and find another compartment."

"Fine, I'll see you tonight, when YOU can apologise to ME!" Ron, ears burning red in his anger, stormed off, looking for another compartment. After Ron storms out, Harry walks out, making sure that Ron has actually gone. After seeing Ron change train cars, Harry moves back inside the compartment, seeing that everyone else has sat back down.

"I'm sorry about that guys, I mean, I really didn't expect him to react that way."

"You don't need to apologise for Ronald Harry, it's not your fault that he isn't exactly the nicest person around." Hermione placed her hand on Harry's shoulder as he sat down.

"Thank you for standing up for me guys, you didn't need to." Neville muttered out, his lack of confidence showing again.

"Neville, stop it. I consider you a friend, I really do, and therefore, when anyone, ESPECIALLY someone I consider a friend, insults you, I WILL stand up for you," Noticing Luna go to say something as well, Harry decides to add in, "And yes Luna, I consider you a friend as well, therefore, I would also defend you."

"Th-thank you Harry. I know Ronald has always thought me odd, he never really understood me and so he lashes out."

"No Luna, there is no excuse. Ron really shouldn't be acting like that. I mean, this is our third year and he still acts like he does when we were beginning first year. Not only that, but he has shown already that he can act with quite a lot of jealousy, I don't know how he is going to react further when I begin to apply myself in classes. I had to distract him to prevent an argument yesterday before it could begin."

After this rather heavy discussion, the group began to cheer up. When the trolley came by about an hour later, Harry bought everyone some of their favourites, Strawberry Bats for Luna, Chocolate Frogs for Neville, Ice Mice for Hermione, and Peppermint Grims for Harry, a treat that Harry had found quite the liking for during his time in Diagon Alley. The second time the trolley came around, Harry bought them all a box of Bertie Botts to share, playing the Beans game with them.

Right after Neville had to eat a dragon dung bean, making a joke that he doesn't get what the plants in the greenhouses see in the flavour, the train began to slow down, the group noticing it was slowing much earlier than expected.

"What's going on? We shouldn't be at Hogwarts yet? The sun has only just gone down." Hermione muttered, checking her analogue watch for the time, seeing that they were approximately 2 and a half hours outside of Hogsmeade.

"Can you guys feel that?" Neville asked, shivering as the cold set in, the window frosting over and the liquids in the room turning to ice. Just as Harry began to open his mouth, the train car began to rock and the sound of the doors onto the train car opening was heard.

"Something is boarding the train?" Hermione asked, clearly confused about how such a thing was possible. They begin to hear a rasping, near hissing sound as something comes down the corridor of the train. Harry, beginning to hear a woman screaming, looks around to make sure everyone else is okay. First, Harry notices Neville shaking, wide eyed and fearful, as if he was seeing something he really didn't want to see. Secondly, he saw Luna, tears welling in her eyes, also appearing to be looking at something that she did not want to see. Finally, Hermione appeared to be horrified and fearful, a look crossing her face that Harry remembered as a combination of the look plastered on her face as she stared down the Troll during their first year and the look that had been frozen on her face when the Basilisk had petrified her.

Just as Harry finished looking around the compartment, the door began to slowly open, a decaying, large hand pushing the door open, revealing a hooded humanoid creature gliding there. The creature turned to look at Harry, as it does so, his vision began to blur, a flash of auburn hair, the calling of his name, and a streak of green mixing into what he is seeing. Before anything gets worse, a bright white light erupts in his vision, the creature screeches and flees after he hears someone shouting just outside.

"Wha-? What's happening?" Neville got out, returning to some semblance of normality.

"I don't know, I really don't know." Harry replied, looking outside the companion, seeing a worn out and tired looking man. Dressed in some rather shabby clothes with a myriad of scars crossing his face.

"That gents," Began the man, "Was a Dementor, the guards of Azkaban. They were searching the train for Sirius Black," Only Harry noticed the slight flicker of emotion behind the man's eyes as he said the name, "However, for some reason that one decided to stop and try and have a feast on the four of you. Now, I know you are all feeling pretty bad, so here, this will help," The man offered the four chocolate, naturally, the four of them were weary of the strange man offering them chocolate, "I see you don't feel as if you can trust me. Well, I am Professor Remus Lupin, your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher."

"Wait, Remus Lupin, as in Remus 'Moony' Lupin?" Harry asks, quite astounded that he met one of his father's school friends.

"Wai-wha-HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT?!" He bursts out, a ,myriad of emotions, primarily fear cross his eyes, as he asks. He doesn't notice when Luna grabs the block of chocolate, handing a small piece to each of the others, before gorging on the majority of the block herself. Neville gives her a strange look.

"What? Harry knows him, and he offered, so it's mine now." Luna said, sticking her tongue out at Neville as she did so.

"I have the 'Guide to Beastly Pranks', I mean, I am Prongs' son after all." Harry watched for Lupin's reaction.

"H-Harry?" Lupin stutters out, Harry finally notices the small traces of amber in his eyes.

"Yeah, it's nice to meet you Moony, or should I call you Uncle Moony?" Harry asks, a cheeky grin on his face.

"Wh-, I, I think you should call me Professor Lupin for now. We, we will need to talk later I think." Lupin appeared to be regaining his composure.

"Well, these are my friends, this is Hermione Granger, Neville Longbottom, and Luna Lovegood." Harry introduced them, pointing at the three of them as he went.

"It's nice to meet you all. I'm sorry that the Dementor ahh, went far beyond what it was allowed to do, I'll be sure to inform the Headmaster about this." Lupin had progressed into a more, professional, tone as he continued speaking.

"I feel better, you were right, this is really helping!" Luna chirped, completely ignoring that Lupin was trying to act more professional.

"Quite, well, I need to go speak with the conductor, we will be arriving in about an hour and a half. I will see you all later." Lupin pretends to tip a hat as he walks out, heading towards the front of the train.

"Well, I guess we should try and relax, right guys?" Harry asked, trying to bring humour to the situation.

"But that doesn't sound fun at all." Luna pouted, clearly sad about the idea of being relaxed.

* * *

The four were looking out the window at the station when the train finally arrived, clearly noticing several of the Hogsmeade villagers standing there with what was clearly Madame Pomfrey giving the lot of them orders. Luna did not miss the fact that each villager had a box of Honeydukes chocolate bars, clearly showing that the school was providing for all of the students in the aftermath of the Dementors boarding the train.

"All students, remain in your compartments until the villagers of Hogsmeade have visited your compartments. Any students who were in close proximity to the Dementors report to Madame Pomfrey immediately after your compartment has been visited. Due to the larger than normal amount of people that will be present on the platform, first years are to remain in their compartments until another announcement is given." The voice over the PA gave everyone specific orders that all the students followed, the group of four themselves were waiting in order to go see Madame Pomfrey.

Shortly after the villager, who introduced herself as Madame Rosmerta, handed out their chocolate bars, much to Luna's pleasure, as well as telling them that she hoped to see them when they came to Hogsmeade, explaining that she ran the Three Broomsticks pub, came around, the group went to go and see Madame Pomfrey.

"Poppy," Harry began, walking his group over to the medi-witch, "A Dementor came into our compartment, we were told to come and see you by the PA announcement."

"Ah, yes, I will need the lot of you to come and visit me after the feast. Regardless you would have been visiting me anyway Mr Potter, a wizard your age should not have caused accidental magic, it may have been caused by the basilisk venom and phoenix tears in your system, I would like to give you another check-up after the feast." Poppy smiled at Harry when he addressed her, as well as taking a much less stern tone with the others from what they were used to hearing from the older witch.

"Uh, Poppy, how did you find out about that?" Harry voiced the question that both he and Hermione were thinking.

"Albus informed me shortly after the Minister informed him. He was worried as, like I said, someone your age should not produce accidental magic anymore, and he was worried that there may be a medical reason for it."

"Ok, I'll make sure that Harry and the others come to the Hospital Wing after the feast Madame Pomfrey." The medi-witch smiled at Hermione after she spoke.

"Thank you dear, I will see the four of you then. Run along now, you have a feast to attend first." She waved them away towards the carriages as she finished.

As the group began moving along the platform, Harry saw Hagrid waiting for the first years to be allowed off the train. Harry, seeing Hagrid standing there without anything to do other than smile at passing students, decided to go and say hello to his friend.

"Hello Hagrid." Harry, Hermione, Neville, and Luna all chorused at the same time.

"Oh, hello you four, did you have a nice train ride?" Hagrid asked, the four noticing that he was speaking slightly slower than usual, but much clearer at the same time.

"Aside from the Dementors, yes. Did something happen to your voice Hagrid?" Harry asked, curiosity and worry for his friend dictating his decision.

"Yes actually. I've been gettin' lessons from Professors McGonagall and Sprout over the holidays, meant to help me seem more professional." Hagrid had a beaming smile, trying to show that he was indeed more professional.

"I was wondering why you were in new clothes Hagrid." Came Luna's voice, causing the others to look closer at what Hagrid was wearing. The other three noticed that Hagrid was indeed wearing new clothes, his previous vest and pants appeared to have been made out of animal pelt, whereas the clothes he now wore were made out of a mixture of fabric and what appeared to be dragonhide. He now also wore a button up short underneath that was tailored and tucked into his pants, which were being held up by a long leather belt that had a buckle made to resemble a dragon egg.

"Wow Hagrid, I didn't notice, those look good on you." Hagrid smile grew even larger at Neville's praise.

"Thanks, the vest and pants were a present from Charlie Weasley and some of his friends at the Dragon Preserve. One of the dragons that had been acting like a foster parent for Norberta passed away and Charlie pointed out to his boss that I hatched Norberta and had a tendency to work with animals that require a sturdier type of clothes, so as a thank you they sent me these." Hagrid began running his hands over the dragonhide, showing that the man was still enraptured by the gift.

"Norberta? Wasn't the dragon's name Norbert? And what about the shirt, and belt?" Hagrid stopped playing with his vest at Hermione's questioning.

"Oh right, Norbert turned out to be a female dragon," Here the four could just make out that Hagrid was blushing, "The ah, the books I had been reading didn't go into detail about that, and she wasn't big enough to tell by the size of the ridges. The shirt, well, shirts, were a gift from Professors McGonagall and Sprout for getting better with my accent, I only slip up a little bit now. The belt was from Professor Kettleburn though, he thought it was quite fitting."

"Oh, that reminds me, you wouldn't happen to know where Professor Kettleburn's office is would you Hagrid?" Harry asked, much to the confusion of the others.

"Well yes I do, but why do you need to know that Harry?"

"Well, I'm not taking Care of Magical Creatures, and I was wondering, if I'm able to fit it, if I could be an assistant or something for the Care of Magical Creatures class? I mean, it's an interesting subject, and while I would love to take it I would prefer to be able to do my other electives if doing all three isn't an option. If I can be an assistant I could help out with the class whenever I have free time."

"Well, I'm sure you can arrange that, but you might want to wait till you get your schedule, or at least till after the feast before you try and organize something like that." Of the group, only Hermione noticed the mischievous glint in Hagrid's eye, but decided against bringing it up.

"Well then, see you later Hagrid, we need to catch a carriage." Harry waved to the smiling half-giant as he began walking to the carriages, the others also saying goodbye as well upon seeing the first years finally being allowed off the train.

Approaching the carriages, Harry stopped, seeing strange, skeletal horses tied to the carriages.

"What are those?" Harry muttered, expecting a reply from Hermione.

"Thestrals," Neville muttered beside him, "They are only visible to people who have seen death." Hearing this, Harry began racking his brain trying to figure out who he had seen die, only for him to realize the only people or creatures that fit this list were his parents, the Basilisk, and the diary wraith. He had momentarily though of Quirrell, but then he remembered that, according to Dumbledore, Quirrell's body had technically been dead for a while, Harry merely watching the two souls inside being forced out of it.

"Wait, so, there IS something pulling the carriages?" Hermione asked, intrigued about the animal she apparently could not see.

"They always have pulled the carriages Hermione, didn't you read that in 'Hogwarts: A History'?" Luna asked, having been told that the book was one of Hermione's favourites.

"It, it wasn't mentioned, why wouldn't they mention it?"

"Well, it ISN'T in the newer editions, but I would have thought you would have read the older editions in the library archives." Luna, after having given one of the Thestrals a quick scratch, climbed into the carriage and got comfortable, waiting for the others to get in as well.

After this, Neville climbed in, sitting beside Luna on one side of the carriage, while Harry and Hermione sat down on the other side after climbing in. The carriage began moving, heading down the path through the village and to the castle. While the four were having a conversation, Harry looked out the carriage window in time to see a group of Dementors moving into the forest in order to search it, everything they touch freezing as they moved through the area.

"They really think Sirius would come to the school? What possible reason could he have to?" Harry muttered, thinking the others wouldn't hear him. Hermione did, however, knowing how confused Harry was about the situation, she decided not to bring it up in front of Neville and Luna, while she may now consider the two friends, she wasn't going to go and bring up what can be considered Potter family business in front of them.

"So, how good a Defence teacher do you think Professor Lupin will be?" Neville's face showed that he hoped Remus would be a better teacher than the last two they had.

"Well, it's not like he can exactly be WORSE than Quirrell, and the less said about Lockhart the better." Harry tried not to smile seeing the small embarrassed blush popping up on Hermione's face as he mentioned Lockhart.

Shortly after this, the carriage pulled up at the school, and the four of them climbed out and began heading inside. After passing through the doors the group saw McGonagall approaching, wondering what reason she had for doing so, they stopped.

"Good evening Professor, is something wrong?" Hermione asked, slightly worried that McGonagall would diverge from her normal place waiting for the first years in order to speak with them.

"Good evening, I need to have a quick word with you about your elective classes Miss Granger, if you would please follow me." McGonagall spoke in her normal stern tone, however the look in her eyes showed that she was only being formal in this situation due to protocol.

Hermione walked off quickly with McGonagall, the other three remaining where they were in order to wait for her. The subject of which elective subjects Harry and Neville were taking this year, along with which ones Luna intended on taking next year came up. Harry told the two about his interest in Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, Neville admitted he was taking Care of Magical Creatures and Ancient Runes, admitting that his interest in doing so was based on his interest in Herbology, wanting the knowledge to deal with any Magical Creatures that came around as a result of the plants he keeps, as well as being able to construct his own runic arrays for managing the greenhouse. Luna was looking into taking Care of Magical Creatures, Ancient Runes, and Arithmancy, wanting to take after both of her parents.

Shortly after this conversation finished Hermione returned, with McGonagall walking towards the doors to greet the first years, a small smile on her face as she slipped a wrapped package into her pocket.

"What problems were there with your electives Hermione?" Neville asked, wondering if there would be a potential clash with any other electives.

"Oh, Muggle Studies and Divination are on at the same time as Ancient Runes and Arithmancy, so McGonagall informed me that I would need to choose between the classes in each time slot, so I dropped Muggle Studies and Divination. I can just take the OWL for Muggle Studies anyway and there is no real point in doing Divination if you aren't a seer." Hermione said, only Harry catching the small tell telling Harry that McGonagall may not have just told Hermione to choose between the classes, but decided he would bring it up later just in case he was wrong.

"Alright, let's go sit down the first years will probably be brought in soon for the sorting." Harry commented, beginning to move into the hall after everyone agreed, Luna walking off to the Ravenclaw table while Harry, Hermione, and Neville walked towards the Gryffindor table.

"Let's hope this year is more peaceful than last year, right?" Harry smiled at the other two as he said so, already figuring that no matter how hard he wished it, it would not be so.

* * *

**And that is where I am cutting this chapter, slightly shorter than I like, however, considering the feast, or at least the introductions, and the visit to the Hospital Wing will take up the majority if not all of the next chapter, I am stopping here. No real need for footnotes here, however, I will say that yes, it WAS the fight with Ron and introduction of Remus that were causing me issues with getting this chapter written, I'm still not happy with how it plays out, but unfortunately, I have tried nearly twenty different versions of each, and these are the best I could get.**

**Also, now Harry understands WHY people wanted to be away from Dementors, in fact, why people didn't want to stay near them long enough to even get a sketch or a photograph of, Harry intends on looking into them to ensure that doesn't happen again. Also, before anyone brings up the difference between the canon encounter and this one, wait till next chapter, I will explain it there.**

**Until next time,  
Lucison.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello once more, and welcome to the 5****th**** chapter of 'Like a Lightning Bolt'.**

**Only a few things to point out right now, the author notes stay, they don't actually get counted by ME when counting up my chapter word counts, so all they really 'boost' is the word count recorded by the site. **

**Also, and yes this gets a separate paragraph, for those who did not notice it and thought I was suggesting the canon for that circumstance, Hermione DID NOT TAKE THE TIMETURNER. When Minerva offered it to her so she could take Muggle Studies and Divination at the same time she was taking Arithmancy and Runes, she refused, as her OC personality understood that running herself ragged, simply for doing subjects she doesn't believe in or could do the exams for with 20 minutes of study, was not a good idea. She did however take it to be a vote of confidence from Minerva thinking that she would be able to handle it.**

**So, onto the chapter.**

"**Speech"  
'Thoughts'  
"**_**Spells**_**"  
**_**Book Names**_

**Disclaimer:** **Did generations of wizards ignore that canon Slytherin would only accept a Basilisk as his personal familiar, therefore, Slytherin's monster would be a Basilisk. If so, I don't own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 5:**

Looking around the Great Hall, Harry couldn't help but smile. Every year at the Welcome Feast the Hall looked absolutely beautiful, the banners above each table looked brand new, the plates and cutlery shined as if they had been polished repeatedly for days, and the wood of the tables appeared to be freshly varnished. All of this and many others things let Harry know that the castle, or at the very least whoever cleaned the hall made sure everything was perfect for the new and returning students.

As Harry mused on the cleanliness of the Hall, he almost missed the doors opening allowing Professor McGonagall to bring in the first years. Examining them, Harry cracked a small smile noticing the panicked faces that they had, remembering his own fear over what the test to sort them would be. Catching a glimpse of a face he couldn't help but feel was familiar from among the kids in the crowd, Harry got ready to listen, knowing that he could just wait until they were called by name to figure out who they reminded him of.

The Sorting Hat's song was different from the last one he heard, then again, Harry did consider that the poor fellow only had his songs to think about all year while in the Headmaster's office. Making a mental note to suggest to Minerva that she at least bring the hat to the Quidditch games, Harry watched waiting to see which students would be sorted into which houses. Harry made sure to clap when the first new student and every student that was sorted into Gryffindor after received his applause.

When the girl who was reminding him of someone was called up, Harry put a name to the face, Astoria Greengrass, little sister of Daphne Greengrass, a Slytherin in his year. Watching her get sorted into Ravenclaw Harry began thinking about the Slytherin students in his year. There was Draco of course, Pansy Parkinson, Milicent Bullstrode, Theodore Nott, Vincent Crabbe, Gregory Goyle, Blaise Zabini, Daphne Greengrass, and Tracey Davis. Now the majority of these students weren't exactly his biggest fans, last year thoroughly proving that with how they reacted when the Chamber was opened. On the other hand, Tracey, Blaise, and Daphne all never actually acted as the stereotypical purebloods, maybe with him working on his relationship with Draco he could work on making friends with the kids he would have been housemates with had he not chosen Gryffindor when the hat gave him the choice.

Watching as the last first year was sorted, Harry turned to look at Dumbledore, waiting for the inevitable start of year speech introducing Remus to the school. Looking at the staff table Harry noticed three staff members he had never seen at the table before, as opposed to the one he was expecting. Naturally there was Remus sitting in the typical spot for the Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, however Hagrid was sitting at the table in the spot that had previously been occupied by one of the elective teachers, or at least that's what Harry assumed the previous staff member had taught, considering he had never had the teacher and he was only starting electives this year. The last addition to the staff table was someone Harry vaguely recognized as having been on a Chocolate Frog card. The man was intimidating but not in a way that Harry could describe, it just seemed that as he swept his eyes across the room he was projecting an aura that made Harry feel like he was being looked at by a predator, the same kind of feeling he got when he knew the Basilisk had been looking at him in the Chamber. Before Harry could ask Hermione or Neville if they knew who that was, Dumbledore stood to begin his speech.

"To all new students, welcome, to all returning students, welcome back," Dumbledore smiled a kind smile as he looked around the room, "Now, first I Caretaker Filch has asked me to remind you all that the use of magic in the halls is forbidden and a revised list of all prohibited items is available on his office door for your perusal. Now, I am sure several of you have noticed the changes to our staff, so, firstly, allow me to welcome your new Defence Against the Dark Arts teacher, Remus Lupin. Secondly, Professor Kettleburn has retired in order to spend time with his remaining limbs, replacing him as Care of Magical Creatures Professor is our own Rubeus Hagrid, who has been working with Professor Kettleburn making lesson plans for the last two years in order to ensure the degree of content learned in classes is not lessened."

During Dumbledore's speech there was polite clapping from all four houses at the introduction of Remus, the general consensus being that he cannot be worse than Lockhart. When the change in Care of Magical Creatures was announced there was a large amount of applause from the Hufflepuff and Gryffindor tables, an applause that showed hesitance from the Ravenclaw table, and the Slytherin table clapped only enough to be polite. Dumbledore watched as the tables showed their varying support for Hagrid taking over as Care's teacher, calmly waiting for them to become quiet again before he moved on. When the clapping and shouts of encouragement died down, Dumbledore once again continued his speech.

"Now, I am sure you have all noticed that Hagrid is NOT the last change to our staff. As a result of Professor Lockhart's duelling club, and the sheer amount of attendance numbers the club gathered, the Board of Governors agreed to fund a Duelling Class. So, I would like to introduce to you all, your new Professor for the class of Duelling, Ezekial Bloodrune," Clapping began in earnest here, clearly several of the purebloods knew who the man was, speaking of the man, Harry was startled to see the very large black bird sitting on his shoulder that wasn't there a minute ago, "Lord Bloodrune has offered his services to our establishment and shall be hosting his course for all years, however, I will have him give a more thorough introduction, Ezekial."

Upon Dumbledore saying the man's name he rose from his seat and strode to stand in the place previously occupied by the Headmaster. This allowed Harry to get a much clearer view of the man. He was fairly tall, and for at least the feast had forgone the robes Harry was so used to seeing wizards and witches wear. The clothes he had on instead looked more like they belonged on a Muggle teenager than the thirty or so looking man standing before him. Black cargo pants with chains running between each individual belt loop, the skull and crossbones belt buckle making way to a tucked in plain black shirt covered by a hooded jacket made the man stand out in comparison to his colleagues, however, the man's aura seemed only to amplify once he rose, the lethal grace of his steps making Harry's previous predator thoughts all the more accurate. Ezekial's features showed the noble features Harry had begun to associate with purebloods, but the man's black hair gave more of a wild appearance, the glinting of the lights in his narrowed brown eyes as he surveyed the room also lent toward the predator feeling.

"Greetings students of Hogwarts," Ezekial spoke without allowing time for the students to silence themselves, allowing his voice to do it for him, "As the Headmaster has said, I am Lord Ezekial Bloodrune, and I will be teaching the newest course your school has to offer, Duelling," An indignant squawk from the bird on his shoulder caught Ezekial's attention, "Oh how incredibly rude of me, I would also like to introduce you all to my familiar, Murder. Now, the introductions are complete, how about a little run down of the course? Duelling will not be a mandatory subject, if you do not wish to attend, you don't have to. Classes will be decided by your year level, first and second years will be on Monday nights, third years will be Tuesdays, fourth years will be Wednesdays, sixth years will be Thursdays, and for those fifth and seventh years willing to pass up OWL and NEWT study time your allotted time will be Fridays. This all begins next week by the way."

The noise picked up at this, the four houses would all be having Duelling together? Even Harry had to admit that might not end well. Distracted as Harry was he almost missed Ezekial turning to Remus and receiving a nod from the man before he turned back and cleared his throat, silencing the entire hall nearly right away.

"Now, in these classes I will not just be running you through Duelling, I have spoken with Professor Lupin and the two of us agree that your education so far has not exactly been very broad, therefore, I will also offer basic Defensive spell classes after the Duelling classes. These classes would cover relevant spells you would be normally learning, freeing Professor Lupin more time up to ensure your knowledge of various creatures is up to par. So I will hope to see you all there."

Ezekial bowed before walking back to his seat, many students showing their reactions to the chance to learn new spells. The reaction of the Ravenclaw house was predictable, they were excited, however they were upset that it was still a few days till the courses would begin. The Hufflepuffs, being the house of the hardworking, were also planning out going to the additional work. The Slytherins and the Gryffindors both looked forward to the classes for new spells, the majority thinking of using them on each other.

Dumbledore stood without moving from his seat, and then, clapping his hands with a 'Dig in' muttered for effect, the tables filled with food and drink. Everyone in the room began talking to one another, a large rise in volume making it that Harry couldn't hear anyone more than 5 or 6 places away from him.

"I wonder what kind of duelling styles Professor Bloodrune will teach?" Hermione questioned, as she is grabbing her food.

"Actually, do either of you know anything about him? I vaguely remember something about him on Chocolate Frog cards." Harry looked at the two of them, trying to see if any of them know.

"He was a duelling champion, the European Cup champion to be precise. He was actually Professor Flitwick's only apprentice before he had retired and became a teacher," Neville started listing what he knew about the Professor, "He's about 45 years old-"

"Wait," Harry interjected, "He only looks to be in his late twenties."

"Well, Dumbledore looks to be 80, and he's nearly 2 centuries old. Magical's age slower after the age of about 20. So, he was Flitwick's apprentice as soon as he left school, won three championships, and was rumoured to have has his own apprentice shortly after he was 20."

"Wait, so he retired from duelling at the age of 20?" Hermione asked.

"He won three championships in a row, he wasn't doing it for the prize money, the Bloodrune family is one of the Ancient and Noble families, they have more than enough money to pay for whatever he really wanted."

"Well, with him and Hagrid teaching this year, as well as Professor Lupin, the classes sound like they are going to be fun." Hermione smiled as she imagined the potential class scenarios.

"So uh, Neville, what kind of duelling style did Professor Bloodrune use?" Harry asked, his curiosity now leaning towards what could be taught, just as Hermione's had been at the start of the conversation.

"Well, that's just it. Professor Bloodrune was a student of Professor Flitwick, neither of them have a set style, or at least, a set style that is well known." Neville's own reply seemed to bother him.

"I guess that means his class next Tuesday will be amazing, I mean, it would have to be." Hermione grinned at the idea.

"Well," Neville hesitated as he looked towards Professor Bloodrune, who was currently using his knife to pick at his own food, waving his ring over the food, "I'm more surprised that he has returned to England, last I heard after the Blood War broke out he swore that he wouldn't return for some reason, I don't even have an idea as to what could have caused it."

"Well, maybe we can find out later." Harry offered, his own interest peaked.

"Yeah, I'm sure at the very least we could find out why he came back." Neville offered.

"So Harry," Hermione began, waiting for Harry to look at her, "I guess now we know why Hagrid wanted you to wait huh?"

"Wha-" Harry at first looks confused however the widening of his eyes shows he realizes what she is referencing before he even finishes his first word of confusion, "Oh yeah. Well, I guess I will go see Hagrid as soon as I can to try and organize being a class assistant for Hagrid, that way if I need to study I won't have to go, but I can still rationalize attending the OWL for the course."

"Sounds like a plan Harry, I'll come with you to see Hagrid tomorrow, remember, after this," Hermione points down at her dessert, "We have to go see Madame Pomfrey."

"Oh yeah, Poppy will get mad at me if I don't go there." Harry grumbles to himself, fine with going to see Poppy, not fine with going to the Hospital Wing for an examination.

"Yes, yes she will. It is for your own good though Harry, so you will need to go and not complain, I mean, what if she finds something wrong." Hermione sounded worried at the end, the look in her eyes backing this statement up. Just as she finishes speaking the food begins disappearing from the table, Harry catching Ron out of the corner of his eye grabbing as much food as he can carry. Seeing Dumbledore stand the trio turned to listen.

"Students, normally this would be the point in time when I would be wishing you all goodnight, however, I must give one more announcement. To any who were exposed to the Dementors on the train earlier today, Madame Pomfrey requests you go to the Hospital Wing so as she can give you a quick examination to ensure they did not cause adverse effects. To all other students, I do wish you all a good night." With his final words of the night, Dumbledore bowed once again, Professor McGonagall standing as he began sitting in order to address the students herself.

"Students, I request that those going to the Hospital Wing remain behind, I will escort those needing to go there myself." With that the students began standing up and heading off to bed, Luna skipping over to the trio to sit down while waiting for them to get escorted to the Hospital Wing by Professor McGonagall.

"I was listening to some of the other Ravenclaws," Luna points to a group still sitting at the Ravenclaw table waiting, "Apparently, only the one Dementor boarded the train, however, several of them got close to some of the windows, causing slightly dampened effects, but still causing roughly the same reaction as the one that came into our compartment. From what I can see though they weren't the only ones." Finishing what she was saying Luna gestured to the remaining two tables, both with people remaining behind.

All in all there were nearly thirty students remaining from all four tables, some of them were clearly first years they had just seen be sorted. Looking around at the students affected by the Dementors, a burning fury was apparent in his eyes, a letter to Minister Fudge already being drafted in his head. A thought occurred to Harry at this point, between himself, Hermione and Neville, they would be able to write a letter to Fudge that could potentially persuade Fudge to at the very least, lessen the number of Dementors at the school. Seeing McGonagall, who Harry was pleased to note also had a burning fury in her eyes as she counted the number of remaining students, begin to walk down from the Staff Table in the Hall, Harry began to stand himself.

"Students, please gather round, I will now take all of you to the Hospital Wing for a quick examination by Madame Pomfrey." McGonagall's tone did not accurately portray her feelings, but at the very least it was calming a few of the first years.

Looking at the remaining students as they began to gather, Harry began cycling through who he knew. Cedric Diggory, Susan Bones, and Hannah Abbot were those he knew from the Hufflepuffs, the sixth year prefect doing his best to calm a couple of first and second years that were on the verge of tears. Cho Chang was the only person he recognised from Ravenclaw, except of course Luna, but Harry himself was doing his best to ignore her considering she was switching between glaring at Luna and a second year Puff girl who was hugging Cedric. Actually, as he turned to those walking from the green and silver table, he caught sight of another Raven he at least recognized. Astoria Greengrass was with her sister Daphne, Tracey Davis, and Blaise Zabini, from the way all three were trying to comfort the shaken girl, Harry figured they might have been in the compartment together. Of the Gryffindors Harry noticed the twins and the chaser trio were comforting a couple of first years as well.

Harry, Hermione, Luna, and Neville lagged behind the others as they began walking, receiving a look from the twins that Harry responded with a mouthed 'I solemnly swear', getting a nod from the twins understanding that they were plotting.

"Why are we walking slower?" Hermione gave Harry a curious look.

"I believe it is because Harry wants our opinion on sending the Minister a letter telling him his feelings on the Dementors." Luna's airy voice cut Harry off before he could even begin responding to Hermione.

"Uh, yeah, that's why. I was thinking, he seemed really eager to please when he met me at the Cauldron after what happened with my Aunt," Here Neville looked confused, before remembering Harry's sheepish admission about turning his Aunt into a blimp by accident, "So I figured I could send him a letter, basically mentioning that a Dementor nearly sucked out my soul, as well as several others harassing several heirs and heiresses," Harry motioned to Neville and Luna as well as the others walking in front, "And I figure he will at the very least lower the number of them that are stationed in Hogsmeade and around the school."

"It could work," Neville grew a little flustered when the others turned to look at him, "Well, I mean, I could help with that, Fudge is a man my Gran refers to as 'a spineless incompetent, bending over to preserve his reputation', if he finds out his 'well thought out decision' nearly killed Harry Potter and various others, he will do everything he can to make it seem like he is doing something to fix it. Plus, with the lessons I've received in writing political letters all I really need to know is what you want to say, and I'll write it in a way he will respond to."

"Excellent, I was hoping you would be able to help Neville, with all of us working together we can convince him to lessen the Dementor numbers." The confidence Harr had in his friends caused them all to smile, which in turn helped calm a few of the first years down who were looking at them at the time. Harry waved the group to silence, picking speed up to walk just behind the twins, the reason why becoming apparent to Neville and Luna as soon as they turned the corner, they were at the Hospital Wing and McGonagall had turned around to face them.

"Alright, Slytherin students, you will be first, followed by the Hufflepuffs, this is due simply to the location of your Common Rooms. Ravenclaw will be next and then finally Gryffindor will be checked over. If Madame Pomfrey requests you spend the night in the wing for overnight examination you WILL NOT COMPLAIN. If Madame Pomfrey deems it necessary for you to stay the night after your exposure to the Dementors then you will stay. In you go Slytherins." As the Slytherin students were walking in McGonagall waved her wand and made some of the nearby chairs turn into large sofas, hoping to provide the remaining students with comfort.

When Daphne Greengrass walked out first and headed to her sister, Harry decided to capitalize on his previous decision. Making an obvious show of giving Neville his wand to hold onto, ensuring Daphne saw he no longer had it, Harry began walking over to the Greengrass sisters. Approaching them slowly, Harry saw that Daphne was on guard, having also been joined by her friend Tracey.

"Evening ladies," Harry smiled, bowing before all three girls, "Before you react," Harry got out, managing to cut off what appeared to have been an icy dismissal from the look in Daphne's eyes, "I was merely coming over here to offer to watch out for Astoria after Professor Snape takes you to the Slytherin Common Room, I'm sure you will be worried about her and if leaving her with Lions is a problem for you, do consider that Luna is a Ravenclaw, which means she will be able to stay with Astoria till they go to bed." Harry was ignoring the stares he could feel from all the other students standing around, merely focusing on the girls in front of him.

"I would assume you know my sister's name from the Sorting?" At Harry's nod, she continued, "This isn't some political manoeuvre is it? I heard you talking to Malfoy on the train."

"No. The only form of manoeuvre this could be considered is an offering of friendship, the three of you," Harry referring to the three Slytherins, the girls having been joined by Blaise moments before, "Have never been antagonistic towards me, therefore I would like to start trying to break this trend of Slytherin-Gryffindor hatred." Harry finished, allowing the four of them to study him to see if he was telling the truth.

"While I do not speak for any of my female acquaintances Heir Potter, I am more than willing to accept your offer of friendship, tentatively of course, the bad blood between our houses does not aid in keeping my paranoia in check." Harry nodded, turning with a curious look to the girls.

"I will trust you and your friends to look after my sister for me when I leave, my answer to your offer of friendship will be decided tomorrow after I have spoken with her."

"My decision will wait till then as well." Tracey added, having been quiet since Harry began talking.

"Of course," Harry bowed once again, "I will see you three later. Astoria, I will be over there," Harry pointed in the direction of his friends, "When your sister leaves, assuming you yourself take me up on my offer." Astoria nodded as Harry began walking back to the others.

"Harry, you will never guess what we figured out!" Was the first thing Hermione said to Harry as he sat back down.

"Ok then, what did you figure out?"

"I can use your wand better than I can use my own." Neville piped up as he handed Harry back his wand.

"Neville hasn't been struggling with spellwork because he has low amounts of magic, he has been struggling because the wand has been fighting him. Although it's odd that Ollivander would give you such a bad match."

"Well actually, it was my father's wand. Gran wanted me to use it." Neville looked sheepish at this point, having never heard Ollivander's the wand chooses the wizard speech, he was unaware the wand could be causing problems.

"Hmm, go tell McGonagall Neville. At the very least she can get you an exception for doing spellwork until your Gran agrees to buy you a new one, at best your Gran will come and get you tomorrow to go buy a new one." Harry suggested, hoping to encourage his friend into doing something beneficial for himself.

"And pray tell Mr Potter, why does Mr Longbottom require a new wand?" McGongall's voice behind them was not what the group was expecting.

"Well you see Professor, my Gran has me use my father's wand, just now when I was holding Harry's for him while he went to speak with the Slytherins I felt a stronger connection to Harry's than I do my fathers, so I wish to try and convince my Gran to take me to get a new wand." Neville kept his calm while he explained, even though he was worried about McGonagall's reaction.

"That old battle-axe is going senile," McGonagall muttered, loud enough that the group heard her, "I will speak with your Grandmother as soon as we are done here, you will have a new wand if I have to take you myself."

"Th-thank you Professor." Neville could not think of much else, still shocked that someone would call his Gran senile. McGonagall nodded her head as she walked away to begin ushering the Puffs into the Hospital Wing.

Just as the Hufflepuffs entered the Hospital Wing Professor Snape arrived to take the Slytherins to their Common Room. Harry made eye contact with Snape and immediately saw the flashing emotions he never understood until now, the softening of his eyes as he saw the eyes he attributed to Lily, before the rage flashed through when seeing the rest of Harry. Another thing entered Harry's to do list, talk to Snape. Seeing Daphne hug her sister and walk off with her housemates, Harry watched as Astoria made up her mind, smiling when she began heading over to them.

"Everyone, meet Astoria Greengrass, Astoria, meet Neville Longbottom, Luna Lovegood, and Hermione Granger." Harry introduced his friends to her as she came over hoping to make her feel comfortable.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all." She curtsied before she sat down in the empty space next to Luna.

"So Astoria, aside from the Dementors, how was the train ride?" Hermione asked, hoping to get an insight into the girl's personality.

"Good, my sister and her friends were telling me what the classes have been like. Well, except for Defence, they didn't want to talk about that for some reason." Astoria's last comment earned a glance from the others as they realized immediately why they didn't want to talk about their last 2 Defence teachers.

"What are your thought on the new Duelling classes?" Neville's question piqued everyone's curiosity as they themselves were still excited for the chance to learn from a duelling master.

"They sound like a wonderful idea, I always wished to learn duelling but father didn't approve, he wished for my sister and I to learn business and estate management." Astoria looked down as she finished, clearly not agreeing with her father's wishes.

"Well learning such things may be helpful later in life, if you have already learnt how to manage such things it will give you more time in your adult life to pursue what you want will it not?" Harry offered, hoping to cheer the girl up.

"True, I never looked at it that way," As she replied to Harry the last of the Puffs walked out, just in time for Professor Sprout to arrive, "Well that was the last of the Hufflepuffs, Luna and I will be going in soon as well," Nearly as soon as she had finished saying that, McGonagall called all the Ravenclaws into the Hospital Wing, "That's me and Luna, I'll come back when I've been checked."

"See you soon." Luna chimes, grabbing the younger girls hand and pulling her into the Hospital Wing.

"So, little third years, why were you lagging behind earlier?" Fred chimed, having leaned over the couch as soon as Luna and Astoria had left.

"Your little mouthed reasoning stopped us from investigating sooner, so, what were you up to?" George cuts in, appearing on the other side of Harry.

"A little plan to try and relieve some of the Dementors around our school with their current jobs is all." Harry cheekily replies.

"Oh do tell?" Fred remarks.

"Well considering the Minister attempted to get himself in Harry's good books, Harry is going to send a letter to him being concerned about himself and others, after all, if the Dementors have already defied their orders, why wouldn't they again?" Neville grinned as the brothers did.

"Brilliant." Both twins say at the same time.

"So how were the first years?" Hermione questioned, looking past them at the chaser trio still with the first years.

"Scared, a couple of them were Muggleborn, not exactly the best way to get introduced into their Hogwarts careers." George winced as he was finishing.

"Well, we will just have to make sure they understand this isn't how everything normally is." Harry declared, receiving smiles from everyone else. Professor Flitwick walked up while Harry was speaking and began conversing with Professor McGonagall, waiting for the rest of his Ravens to come out of the Hospital Wing, Cho and several of the older years had already come out of the Wing and were waiting by Flitwick.

"Well, looks like we will be going in next, although, why haven't the little Raven and Luna come out yet?" Fred asked, looking over the assembled Ravens.

"Most likely they will be last, simply due to Luna being exposed to the Dementor directly." Hermione deduced, seeing that the calmer students are the ones who had been out first.

When they came out the two waved as Flitwick began leading them all off to the tower, Harry smiling as he realized that none of the other Ravenclaws had convinced Astoria to leave Luna alone. Waving back Harry then turned to McGonagall as she told the lot of them to go on in to the Hospital Wing.

Entering the Gryffindors saw Madame Pomfrey standing there waiting for them, counting the number of them out she called a name out, a popping sound and a quick request followed by another two pops saw a cup of hot chocolate appear on a nearby table for each of them.

"Everyone have a cup of hot chocolate, first years will be scanned first, then it will be everyone but you three," Pointing at Harry, Hermione, and Neville, "You were in the compartment that the Dementor entered, so you three will be tested last."

As everyone went through the testing, they slowly trickled out, when everyone else was cleared and waiting outside, Hermione and Neville were given a quick diagnostic scan, yielding more information than the previous examinations, telling them to go wait outside, Madame Pomfrey ushers Harry over to a bed, telling him to lay down on the bed as she needed to do a full scan like she did previously.

"Well, you are figuring out how mine went, so, how was your holidays Poppy?" Harry asked, trying not to panic about the situation.

"I was fine Harry, now, I am going to go compare these results," Lifting the stack of parchment with Harry's results, "Just wait here." When Poppy came back several minutes later, she seemed quite confused.

"Harry, I will need to send these results to a friend at St. Mungo's Hospital, they show an irregularity that I wish them to clarify. However, I am sure you may have noticed, your magical core is stronger, and something you will absolutely love, your scar has begun to fade." Poppy's final statement made Harry confused but extremely happy.

"What? How!"

"As far as I can tell it began acting more like a real scar just after your accidental magic burst, most likely caused by the irregularity I want my friend to look over."

"Alright Poppy, I trust you." Poppy smiled at Harry when he said this.

"Go get some sleep Harry, I will send someone to get you when we have confirmation of your results."

"Ok, goodnight Poppy."

When Harry walks out of the Hospital Wing and rejoins the others, Professor McGonagall leads them all to the Common Room. Upon arriving the trio help the first years find their dorms before going to bed themselves, Harry's last thoughts before falling asleep being his desire for Poppy's friend to be able to explain what caused the irregularity in his results.

* * *

**And that's a wrap for this fortnight, I know I didn't get all the way through the explanation like I planned, but everything got away from me in the heat of the moment, so, hopefully I will be able to write in what I want to in the next couple of chapters.**

**Anyway, I don't really have anything else to say this week, except for one thing. Ezekial is NOT a self-insert, the Bloodrune family has a high chance of being in any future fics I write, while Murder the Crowe will be in them all.**

**Until next time,**

**Lucison**


	6. Chapter 6

**Hello again, welcome to the 6****th**** chapter of 'Like a Lightning Bolt'.**

**Just saying, working out a class schedules on specific times is hard.**

**To the people that pointed out about the scar, I hope you realize that Harry himself would have gone out of his way to not only keep it out of view, but to ignore it as much as he could. Not only that, but the people he interacted with would have ignored it themselves in order to not upset their friend.**

**Someone pointed out the accidental magic being brought up, I feel the need to point out that in the series nobody other than Harry shows accidental magic at that age, I was explaining what causes it in my story, while also giving it the proper reaction that it should have.**

**Now, onto the chapter.**

"**Speech"  
'Thoughts'  
"**_**Spells**_**"  
**_**Book Names**_

**Disclaimer: Did Harry not try and make friends with people outside of Gryffindor? If so, I do not own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 6:**

"Harry, Harry," The urgent but whispered voice of Neville woke Harry from his dreamless sleep, "Harry wake up, we need to go to breakfast to get our class schedules." Realizing that Neville is right, Harry props himself up and waves Neville off, sliding off the bed and beginning to get his things ready for the day.

"You ready Neville?" Harry asks quietly, realizing all the others are still asleep.

"I will be in a minute, why?" Neville asks, as he places all of his books on his bedside table, ready for when he comes to get them when he has his schedule.

"I'll meet you in the common room then, I need to have a shower." Harry replies, pulling his uniform out of his trunk and moving to the bathroom. After having a shower and putting his uniform for the day on, Harry made sure his bag had all of the ink, quills, and parchment he might need throughout the day. He also made sure to put the Marauder's map in his bag in a different section so it was within reach if he needed it.

When Harry came down to the common room, he saw Hermione and Neville sitting in two of the chairs, Neville appearing to nod off, clearly still tired from the late night, while Hermione is reading a book.

"Shall we go to the Great Hall? I really want some food right about now." Harry stifles a laugh as his words cause Neville to jerk out of his seat, while Hermione simply places a bookmark in between the pages and slips the book into her bag.

"Food sounds wonderful." Neville grumbles out, clearly not completely awake. The trio made small talk as they moved towards the Great Hall, being joined by Luna as she came skipping from the direction of Ravenclaw tower. Upon arriving, they see that only a few students have actually arrived at the Great Hall.

Sitting down to eat at the Gryffindor table, the four of them continue making small talk while they began eating. Harry looked around the room, trying to see who he knew out of the early risers. At the Slytherin table Harry could see some of the Slytherin Quidditch players, while he could see the same at the Hufflepuff table. At the Ravenclaw table he could see quite a few student, most reading their class books. At the Gryffindor table there isn't anyone sitting there that Harry recognizes. At the staff table Harry can see that most of the teachers have arrived, with the exception of the Headmaster.

"So, when do you think the Professors will come by with the timetables for this year?" Luna inquired, seeing the four Heads of Houses all present at the staff table.

"Probably when more of the students have arrived. Although, Professor Flitwick seems to be getting up from his seat." Neville comments, seeing the diminutive Professor walking down from the staff table. Surprisingly, he headed over to the Gryffindor table as opposed to the Ravenclaw table.

"Good morning all, Ms Lovegood, I have here your class schedule for this year, with you sitting here at the Gryffindor table, I figured I would give you your timetable when I came to do this, 5points to Gryffindor and Ravenclaw for a show of House Unity after the unfortunate incident last night on the train." With that, the Professor nodded to the group while handing Luna her schedule, the third years of the group looking and seeing that it matched the timetable they themselves had the year before, except Luna's had a note for when the first and second year Duelling class was on.

"Huh, it never occurred to me till now that they might just keep the same timetables, well, technically the same, we didn't have Duelling last year." Hermione muttered as she read the timetable, comparing it to her memory.

"Would have been really helpful to have an actual Duelling class." Harry grumbles, thinking of how it could potentially have helped against the Basilisk.

"I'm sure they would have, looks like the rest of the third year Gryffindors are awake." Hermione observes, seeing the group of third years sluggishly moving into the Great Hall. A familiar head of red hair moved at the back of the group, perking up when he sees Harry and Hermione sitting there, slowly walking over to the four of them.

"Harry mate, why didn't you wake me up?" Ron asks, not paying attention to the others as he sat down.

"You hadn't apologised Ron, you had the option to last night after the Feast, or at any time on the train. Had you apologised, I would have woken you up." Harry spoke completely calmly, trying not to anger Ron.

"Why did I have to apologise? I didn't do anything wrong?" Ron mumbles through his food.

"You insulted Luna and Neville on the train Ronald." Hermione reminded Ron, hoping he would apologise to her friends.

"I did not!" Ron huffed, going slightly red in the face.

"Yes Ron, you did, you called them both names when they hadn't done anything to deserve it." Harry's calm tone continued unwavering as he spoke.

"I did not, I didn't insult anyone at all." Ron's face had gone a mixed red, partly in embarrassment, partly in anger. Before Ron could object anymore a pair of arms wrapped around each of his arms, hoisting him up and away.

"Well now little brother," "I believe it should be away with you," "Wouldn't want to make a scene first day." The twins' timely arrival and removal of Ron prevented what could have potentially been a very large incident had the argument continued. The twins carting him off and putting him down next to Dean and Seamus.

"I was hoping that would have gone better." Harry mutters, talking to himself.

"I'm sorry if being friends with me is causing problems with your friend Harry." Luna comments, slightly downcast.

"Y-yeah I'm sorry too, I mean, Ron and you are best friends, and I'm sorry that you being friends with me is causing the two of you to argue." Neville also seemed downcast as he spoke, seeing his two friends both reacting negatively was making Harry even more annoyed at the situation.

"Firstly Neville, Ron is not my best friend, he was my first friend, but not my best. Hermione is my best friend," Harry was looking intently at Neville and Luna and therefore missed the beaming smile that Hermione sent his way from beside him, "And secondly, the two of you have nothing to apologize for, Ron knows how I feel about people calling others names. He was needlessly rude and mean, and the fact that he didn't apologize when he could have and even denied that he needed to is not helping the situation."

"Thank you Harry, I've, I've never had a friend to stand up for me before." Neville commented, his head bowed with a slight tinge of red to his cheeks showing his embarrassment at Harry's declaration.

"I've never had one either, so to go from not even having a friend, to having three is a wonderful experience." Unlike Neville, Luna has a small smile upon her face, looking at all three of the people she considers friends, not a hint of embarrassment on her face at her admission.

"While I would love to continue our little emotional conversation," The smile on Hermione's face showed there was no mean intentions behind her words, "I can see Professor McGonagall handing out schedules and she looks to be nearly here." True to her words, McGonagall was just finishing handing Dean, Seamus, and Ron there timetables for the year.

"Mr Potter, Miss Granger, and Mr Longbottom," As McGonagall listed off the trio of names, she pulled out three separate pieces of parchment, tapping each with her wand, "Here are your schedules for the rest of the school year, I suggest you go and get your things for the day now that you know what classes you have." After speaking, she gave the group a quick nod of acknowledgement before moving onto the next group of students who still needed their class schedules.

Harry looked at his class schedule, seeing that for a Thursday the classes he had were Charms in the first period, Arithmancy in the second followed by lunch. After lunch he had Defence Against the Dark Arts for his third period followed by an empty period. After checking with Hermione and Neville he found that his blank period was when Care of Magical Creatures was on for those who took the elective. Making a mental note to go and see Hagrid about seeing if he can help with the classes for Care of Magical Creatures.

"We should go and get our books, then head to the Charms class room before the class begins to get our seats." Hermione commented, having finished examining her own timetable, which when Harry looked he saw had no free periods.

"I best be off as well, I need to go and get my books before I have my classes. See you all at lunch?" Luna perked up when the other three all nodded to her as she got up and left, the three remaining doing the same as well shortly after.

"Who do we have Charms with anyway?" Neville asked, having not actually checked the fine print on his timetable which had the class composition written on it.

"Slytherin. We also have Defence with them after lunch." Harry replied, the three currently standing on one of the staircases as it moved.

"Speaking of Slytherins," Hermione began. Catching the attention of the other two, "I noticed two things, one, Malfoy didn't try and bother us this year, I told you that he had come looking for you last year, and so I was surprised when he didn't come this time."

"Well, I may or may not have had a chat with him before I got to the compartment." Harry sheepishly added.

"Harry," Hermione adopted a stern tone, "You didn't attack Malfoy on the train did you?"

"Honestly why would you jump to a conclusion like that?" Harry asked, trying to make a joke of the situation.

"Because if anyone was going to have a duel on the train before Hogwarts even started for the year it would be you and Malfoy?" Neville's slightly amused tone showed that he was also making a joke of the situation.

"Hey, I take offence to that." Harry muttered, jokingly pouting as Hermione and Neville were both stifling laughs.

"It is something that could happen though considering how the two of you argue." Hermione pointed out as she managed to get control of her laughter.

"Well we did not have a duel. Although if we did it would have been amazing and you would have missed it," Harry stuck his tongue out at the other two before a more serious expression came over his face, "I just had a chat with him. Apologized for how I insulted him in our first year without realizing it, pointed out to him that we are pretty close to family, considering his mother and my father were cousins. I also agreed that we could at least try and be neutral with each other for now."

"That's, very mature of you Harry. However, I feel like he owed more of an apology, I mean, after last year with how he acted when the Chamber opened." Hermione didn't need to elaborate for Harry to understand what she was talking about, he remembered clearly how much of a bigot his cousin had been during the last year.

"I know, however, he was raised to believe that was right, and while it infuriated me that he called you that, I can't hold it against him. Don't think I don't want to, I do, it's just, he is family, it's not like I have a lot of that to work with. I want to make him apologize, and I figure that if we're neutral with each other, I can slowly change his mind when it comes to his beliefs, so he will apologize on his own." Harry's tone conveyed the small amount of hope he had as he spoke of changing Draco's ways. He also missed the small wince both Neville and Hermione had when he mentioned his lack of family.

"Well, if anyone is going to make Malfoy change his bigoted ways, I would have to put my money on you Harry," Neville cracked a grin as he tried to lighten the mood, "However, on the subject of Slytherins, what was with you last night Harry? Should we be concerned that you are going to leave us for some Slytherin ladies?"

"Oh haha Neville, cheap shot," The grins Neville and Harry sported as they shoved each other made Hermione smile as she noted how the two seemed like natural friends, "I am attempting to increase the number of people I can call friends. Considering Malfoy and I agreed to be neutral with each other, I figured I could try and make friends with the Slytherins who themselves are considered neutral, when the opportunity presented itself, I acted."

"That's very cunning of you Harry, maybe you should have been in Slytherin." Neville comments with a grin on his face.

"I don't think the House of Snakes would have reacted well to a Basilisk being let loose among them." Harry laughed as he finished, enjoying his own little joke. Hermione's laugh joined Harry's as Neville tried to stifle his own laugh.

"Think so highly of yourself Harry, do we need to take you to Madame Pomfrey for a big head?" Neville finally let loose his laugh when Hermione got out her reply, drawing the attention of some of the Gryffindors who were coming out of the portrait hole.

"We will meet you in the Common Room after we grab our books Hermione." Harry called as he and Neville began walking towards the boy's stairs.

"See the two of you in a minute." She called in reply.

The two of them ran up the stairs to the boys dorms, grabbing the books they would need for the day before heading back down to the Common Room where Hermione was already waiting for them.

"Honestly boys what took you so long?" Her joking tone made them all laugh again as they began the trek to Charms from the Gryffindor Common Room, simply enjoying some small talk with each other as they went.

As they approached the classroom, Harry saw Daphne, Tracey, and Blaise standing just around the corner from the classroom, from where they were standing, Harry could see that while those three were there, the rest of the Slytherin contingent was lined up outside the Charms classroom. Catching Daphne's eye and seeing her twitch her head in a manner Harry realized meant 'over here' Harry asked Hermione and Neville to go and wait, getting them seats if they were allowed into the room before class actually began.

"Miss Greengrass, Miss Davis, Mr Zabini, I take it you two ladies have decided on my offer of friendship?" Harry bowed as he greeted the three snakes, his tone both formal and friendly as he spoke.

"It's Blaise, Potter, assuming I can call you Harry?" Blaise spoke, his calm aristocratic tone revealing no emotion.

"Of course Blaise, after all, friends cannot go around calling each other by their last names." Harry's grin was matched by Blaise's own, causing Harry to do a mental victory dance at having the normally calm and reserved Blaise showing emotion so blatantly. Truthfully the only greater achievement he could think of in this situation is making Heiress Greengrass, the Ice Queen of Slytherin, react with just as much emotion.

"I spoke with my sister this morning Potter, she seemed to have enjoyed the small amount of time she spent with your group. So, I will, tentatively, accept your offer of friendship. I just hope that you do not cause me to regret my decision." Daphne's face revealed nothing, neither did her tone, Harry realized that if he intended on making her react he was probably going to have a hard time on his hands.

"I will, unlike my friend here, accept your offer of friendship, I trust Astoria's judgement of you enough to believe you about your motivations for offering your friendship." Tracey, unlike Daphne, revealed small flashes of emotion as she spoke, clearly not as used to hiding her emotions as her friend.

"May I call either of your by your first names," A small grin made its way onto his face, a look that Harry had been told during his stay at the Cauldron was 'charming', "After all, names as beautiful as those the two of you have been gifted with should not be ignored in favour of unnecessary formality between friends." The reaction caused by his words and grin both entertained and annoyed Harry, although he made sure to prevent his annoyance from flashing across his face. Tracey broke out into a bright blush, which earned a small chuckle from Blaise who himself earned a flared from the lady in question. Daphne on the other hand, had amusement flash through her eyes, her lips twitching into a grin, and a small red tinge making its way across her cheeks. The part that caused Harry's annoyance however, was the fact that these three reactions only lasted upon her face for a few seconds, had he not been looking to see how the two ladies reacted, he would have missed it.

"W-well ok, just like Blaise though, as long as I can call you Harry." Tracey stuttered at first, still recovering from her blush.

"The same response from me, if I may call you Harry, you may call me Daphne." The curt nod revealed no more information.

"Now, Harry, if you are done causing poor Tracey to get flustered," Blaise ignored the indignant response from Tracey at his words, "I believe we may wish to head into Charms," A quick wave of his wand and a muttered '_Tempus'_ showed the time to be 8.55am, "As the class will be beginning in five minutes, as I don't wish to earn a detention for being late on the very first class of the very first day."

"Of course, would you like me to walk with the three of you in, or would you prefer we go separately, after all, our housemates may not exactly react in a positive way if we walk in together." Harry commented ensuring to word his sentence in a way to not be insulting or to suggest that he was ashamed of them.

"That may be best, at least for the first few weeks, our housemates most likely have had their prejudices reinforced over the holiday break, we should give them time to readjust to life in the castle." Daphne comments as she picked up her bag, Tracey and Blaise following suit.

"Well then, the three of you may go in first." Harry bows once more, though this bow was friendlier than the formal one he gave at the start of the conversation. A nod of the head and a wave goodbye were offered by all three as they moved towards the classroom ahead of him, Harry watching them go. After a moment of thought Harry realized he now had friends in three of the four Houses. A _Tempus_ of his own showed Harry that he had three minutes till the class began, so he began heading over to the door, walking in and seeing a seat saved for him between Neville and Hermione.

"How did it go?" Hermione enquired, a raised eyebrow showing her curiosity.

"Well, I managed to make Blaise laugh, made two new friends, made Tracey blush, and nearly melted the Ice Queen's exterior." Harry's grinned at his own achievement.

"Impressive, I didn't think anyone would be able to do something like that. Wait, actually, define melted her exterior." Neville looked genuinely curious at the end.

"Made her crack a grin and put a light blush on her cheeks." Harry smiled as he answered Neville's question.

"Well, ignoring the circumstances that caused them to blush, what happened?" Hermione asked, a small look of annoyance on her face when she mentioned the other girl's blushing that was missed by Harry and Neville.

"Well, they spoke with Astoria, and as a result, Tracey agreed to my offer of friendship and Daphne tentatively agreed to my offer." Harry explained, not noticing Neville's reaction at him calling them both by their first names.

"So it's Blaise, Tracey, and Daphne now hey Harry? Might want to be careful oh mighty 'Basilisk', some people might react strangely to hearing you call them that." Neville's mocking tone at the end showed that he meant the entire thing to be a joke.

"All right everybody, class is about to begin, so can you all please quiet down!" Professor Flitwick yelled from his spot at his lectern. Running through the class list Flitwick found that every student was there and so began the lesson.

"Now, some of you might be hoping we will be moving straight into new work, but we will not be. I wish to spend this lesson recapping the spells we have learnt over the last two years, not only to help enforce the lessons you learnt throughout those two years but to help you get used to using magic again before learning new spells," Flitwick announced, tapping his wand on the board in order to reveal the spells he wanted them to recap, "I will be moving around the room and providing assistance when it is needed."

"Well, I think this will be a rather easy lesson, anything else we need to talk about?" Harry asked as he read the list of spells.

"No, I'm all good, I haven't really got anything else to talk about, you Neville?" Hermione replied.

"Nope, I'm all good, let's get the work done." Neville finished off their small conversation by beginning to practice the levitation charm.

The class moved through the different spells, with only a few mishaps caused by various students messing up an incantation or a wand movement and causing a differing effect, thankfully nobody was hurt. Before they knew it the first class of their first day was over and the trio split off, Harry and Hermione going to Arithmancy while Neville went to go and see Professor McGonagall, a note arriving just before the end of Charms requesting he go to her office after the class finished.

The Arithmancy class mainly consisted of Ravenclaws, with a few Hufflepuffs, the Slytherin trio Harry had befriended, with only Harry and Hermione there representing Gryffindor.

"Welcome class, to your first lesson of Arithmancy. In this class you will learn how to analyse the properties of spells, wards, enchantments, etcetera. By breaking down these spells it will help you to understand how spells in your differing classes work, while also allowing for you to eventually be able to modify spells you already use and make your own." The Arithmancy teacher, Professor Vector gave a starting spiel for her class, before starting them on an assisted breakdown of one of the easier spells to break down, the _Lumos_ spell.

When the class itself eventually ended they moved out to go to lunch, looking forward to seeing how Professor Lupin would be teaching his first Defence class for the third years.

* * *

**And that's the chapter finished. I apologize for the delay between my usual posting time and the time this chapter is being posted. I also apologize for another smaller than 5000 word chapter, as I did not intend on anything happening in Arithmancy and Charms other than the classes themselves, and what I would have done for the lunch break will be the start of the next chapter.**

**I will clarify this at this point. As it currently stands there is still no set pairing for this fic. Anything that suggests a pairing is purely due to how the words flowed from my muse to myself to the page. **

**Until next time,**

**Lucison.**


	7. Chapter 7

**Hello, now, welcome to the 7****th**** chapter of 'Like a Lightning Bolt'.**

**People have pointed out that I tend to switch tenses, this is primarily because when I write I write how it comes out in my head, unfortunately, I have tried to fix this. However when I read the edited versions, I don't like it, and wind up rewriting it all, once again bringing me to a state of multiple tenses. So while some people may find it uncomfortable to read, it's something I cannot change, if a chapter comes out purely in one tense that is literally a state of chance.**

**I know the last chapter was a bit, short, time progression wise, this was because I really could not come up with a full set of classes for the day. Thankfully I was able to finish off the class schedule, if people want it released before we get through an entire week of classes, I will post it at the end of the next chapter.**

**Now, onto the chapter.**

"**Speech"  
'Thoughts'  
"**_**Spells**_**"  
**_**Book Names**_

**Disclaimer: Does nobody realize that there is a tradition every Christmas for there to be a Yule Ball to accompany the Tri-wizard tournament? If so, I don't own Harry Potter.**

**Chapter 7:**

Walking into the Great Hall for lunch, Harry and Hermione spotted Neville and Luna already sitting down eating lunch at the Ravenclaw table. Walking closer to the table, they noticed that only Luna was actually eating, Neville seemed to be enamoured by his wand.

"You seem a little distracted Neville? What happened with McGonagall's office?" Harry asked, having clicked his fingers in front of Neville's face as he spoke.

"Gran was there, she took me to go get a new wand," Neville's grin was immense as he showed his new wand to Harry and Hermione, Luna not looking indicating that she had already looked, "It's 13 inch cherry wood with a unicorn hair core, Ollivander told me he was surprised I only just came to get my wand, he seemed a little mad with Gran when he said that."

"Probably because he expected you to have gotten your wand when you were 11 like the rest of us. I mean, from what I understand isn't it quite abnormal for someone to use a legacy wand?" Hermione offered a reason for Ollivander's attitude towards Neville's grandmother, while also proposing a general question to both Luna and Neville.

"Yes, legacy wands are quite rare, mostly because of the variations between members of a family. Wandlore has been studied for generations and they still don't know why or how a wand chooses its wizard or witch. Daddy looked into wandlore for a little bit but he prefers to study magical creatures." Luna's explanation causes a look of intrigue to come across Hermione's face, Harry assuming that look to mean at some point she would take a look into wandlore herself.

"So have you tried any magic with the new wand yet Neville?" Harry asked as he filled his plate with food.

"Yeah, I did," Neville pointed at his purple goblet and yellow spoon, "I tried the colour changing charm, I wasn't able to make it work in class during the review, but I can now."

"That's excellent Neville. Have you considered trying some more of the spells you had problems with tonight or over the weekend? We can help if you want." Hermione offered, having realized that simply getting the colour changing charm had done wonders for Neville's self-confidence, gave him a way for the group of friends to both become closer and work on Neville's self-confidence on a whole.

"That's actually a great idea, if we assume we will be doing review in all our classes but our electives, we can work through and make sure we are able to do them. Also, if you want Luna, you can come with us and we can try and teach you a couple of the spells you will be doing in your first few weeks." Harry suggested, the idea of working on his classes as well as helping out his friends appealing greatly to him.

"That is a wonderful idea," Neville began, "I can make sure I know how to perform all of the spells we might have to do in review, and at the same time we can all help Luna."

"Learning the spells before we learn them in class sounds like a wonderful idea, it will give me more time to focus on things like Potions and Herbology." Luna's bright smile at the idea of learning allowed the others to see the reason why she was in Ravenclaw.

"It's settled then, so, how about tonight, after dinner, we can simply go over the spells we began reviewing today in class?" Proposed Hermione, the look in her eyes showing how eager she is to complete her spell review after being cut off from magic for the majority of the holidays.

Having finished their lunch, the group was simply sitting and talking when they noticed that some people were already getting up and heading to their classes, the group joined them in leaving the Great Hall. Saying goodbye to Luna as she left them while they were on the way to Defence Against the Dark Arts, the three arrived at the classroom to find the door was closed and Professor Lupin was standing beside the door, a slight grin coming upon his face at seeing the three.

"Hello all, feeling better now after a good night's rest and some chocolate?" Remus conveyed a worried and hopeful tone as he questioned the group.

"We are feeling a lot better Uncle Mooney." Harry smiled at Lupin, waiting to see the man's reaction.

"Didn't I say that for now you should call me Professor Lupin?" Remus's voice contained slight amusement as he spoke, showing that while he was serious the situation was funny to him.

"Well, I will in class, but otherwise you are the same Mooney who apparently pranked my parents by putting dung bombs and a locking charm on their favourite broom closet." Harry's bright smile at the mention of the story about his parents showed how much he valued information like that.

"I remember that, and I guess I can consider it a battle won if you at least call me by my title in class." The mirth in the grown man's eyes tinted with sadness showed that he was reminiscing about the situation Harry had mentioned.

"Professor, may I ask why the classroom door is closed?" Hermione cut in, not wanting the interaction between her friend and the man he considered an Uncle to be spoiled by a memory tinted by sadness.

"Well, I don't want everyone to go in and get comfortable of course." The returned amusement in Lupin's eyes showed that he was withholding information on purpose.

"And why is that Professor Lupin?" Neville cut in, his own curiosity boiling over as he spoke up.

"Because, we won't be spending the entire lesson in this classroom. After a few visits after the feast I realized there was a specific bit of knowledge from later in my curriculum that, well, is more relevant than my original first lesson. Well, it's also more relevant than my second idea for the first lesson, however Professor Bloodrune and I worked out a deal, I would cover the theory on the creature, he would cover the spell used against it." The serious and grim expressions that had crossed Lupin's face allowed the trio to understand the importance of the situation he spoke about.

"Might I ask what creature we are learning about Un-," Harry stopped as he heard Lavender Brown's voice drifting down the corridor, clearing his throat, he continued, "Professor Lupin?"

"The creature we shall be covering for the first part of the lesson is the Dementor. Professor Bloodrune and I both brought the subject of covering information on them to Headmaster Dumbledore, and while I was initially being shot down on my request to teach you all about them, the Headmaster was convinced to allow it by the both of us combined." A variety of emotions had played across Lupin's face as he had talked. First, a small grin at Harry keeping to what he said and calling him by his title, secondly, a grim tone as he spoke about the subject for the lessons first half being Dementors, before finalizing on an agitated tone mixed with a relieved tone as he finished his explanation.

Remus began to welcome each of the students as they arrived, continuously informing them that all would be explained when they entered their classroom. Upon the rest of the student's arriving, Lupin asked them all to come in, before informing them not to get to comfortable, as he merely wished to provide a quick theory lesson before they ended on a more fun note. After a quick explanation of his credentials to the class, he decided it was time to begin.

"Now, I am sure all of you are wondering why we are not getting comfortable. That is because my original AND my secondary plan for this class have both been altered by matters that came to my attention during and after the train trip. Firstly, who here can explain to me, what a Dementor is?" Lupin had fielded his question to the entire room, wanting to see how many people would put their hands up. Seeing a few hands go up Lupin settled on picking Theodore Nott.

"Well sir, a Dementor is a hooded creature, currently they are employed around the school searching for the fugitive Black but they are normally positioned around the prison of Azkaban." Theodore held a neutral tone as he had spoken, revealing no information on his opinion towards either the Dementors, Sirius Black, or the prison Azkaban.

"Correct, 5 points to Slytherin. Can anyone offer more information on them?" Once again choosing from a couple of options Lupin picked Hermione next.

"Well sir, a Dementor floats off of the ground, they lower the temperature around them, as well as emitting a feeling of dread to those in their presence." Hermione had shivered as she finished, showing that simply speaking of it brought the memories of the Dementor to the surface in her mind.

"That's correct, 5 points to Gryffindor," Remus span a blackboard around which had a rather hastily drawn picture of a Dementor, "A Dementor is a deadly creature, used as the primary jailors for Azkaban as their dread aura, which also causes those to relive their darkest memories, is able to help contain the prisoners. They are very difficult to kill, often taking an immense amount of damage before finally dying. There is a way to ward them off, however that will be covered by Professor Bloodrune in your session with him next week. Now, onto the reason why we aren't getting comfortable, pack up what you took out of your bags, it's time for us to go to another room."

"Sir, is there no more you can tell us about Dementors?" Blaise's voice had cut through the sound of everyone packing up.

"The only other thing I can think of is this. Do not allow a Dementor to get a hold of you, they will suck out your soul if they get the chance, leaving you as nothing more than an empty shell." The grave tone Remus had spoken with had caught all of their attentions, allowing them to understand that Remus was not joking with them.

Following Remus out of the classroom, the class saw Peeves the Poltergeist flying away from a door cackling, ignoring the situation they all continued moving. As Remus walked into what appeared to be a random room, the class followed him in. The first thing that became apparent upon walking into the room was the wardrobe rattling from side to side in the centre of the room, a slight gasp came from Hermione, letting Harry and Neville realize that she had probably figured out what the rest of the lesson was going to be.

"From the sounds of things I believe you have an idea as to what is inside the wardrobe Ms Granger?" The attention of the class was brought to Hermione as Remus finished his statement.

"I believe that may be a Boggart sir." Was her curt reply, the eyes of several students widening as they realized she was correct.

"5 points to Gryffindor, I will add another 5 if you are able to give me information on the creature as well." Was the calm reply of Remus, a small smile gracing his face as he awarded the points.

"A Boggart is a shapeshifter, its original form is unknown as it takes on the form of your worst fear." Hermione recited from her memory.

"Excellent, another 5 points to Gryffindor. Now, the spell which is designed to fight a Boggart is the _Riddikilus _spell. In order to use it one must picture a way to make their fear funny, before pronouncing the spell and causing the change to overtake the Boggart," Lupin demonstrated the wand movement as he spoke about the spell, noticing the majority of the students already practicing them, "Now, I will have you all come up here one at a time, causing the Boggart to turn into your fear, upon it doing so, figure out a way to make it funny, before using the spell upon the Boggart. After all, the only way to defeat a Boggart, is laughter."

The class all moved into a group on one end of the room facing the wardrobe's locked door. Lupin began setting up some music as he waited for the students to form a single line or for at least a few students to step into a line. Seeing that Neville had taken a solid step forward, determination gleaming in his eyes, Remus flicked his wand, the wardrobe unlocking and opening.

The room became quiet as they all watched, the wardrobe shaking another time before a single pale hand began pushing the door open. They all watched as a carbon copy of Professor Snape, his trademark sneer coming into place as he looked at Neville, walked out of the wardrobe. Remus smiled as he saw a bright fire appear in Neville's eyes.

"_Riddikilus_." The word had left Neville's mouth with a sense of calm determination. The entire class watched as Professor Snape suddenly sprouted a frilly tutu, bright pink hair, and a terrible application of makeup. Before the Boggart could react the entire class burst into laughter at the image before them.

"Great, absolutely excellent Neville, next!" Remus roared, prompting Neville to move away, and Goyle to move forward, having moved to the front of the line when everyone was laughing. The Boggart Snape looked at Goyle before suddenly transforming into a small cat, which, after the casting of the spell by Goyle, was curled up asleep at the foot of the wardrobe. After the majority of the class had gone through, with varying fears being revealed and triumphed over, Harry finally had his turn.

Time seemed to slow for Harry as he watched the Boggart regard him before it began to shift, out of the corner of his eye he noticed Remus tense, as if he was ready to jump in at any moment to help if something went wrong. Harry racked his brain trying to figure out what form the Boggart could take, trying to work out what his fear is, the sheer amount of time it was taking for the shift to occur was grating on his nerves. Just as he began to wonder if the state of shifting itself was his fear, the Boggart finally changed.

Standing before Harry, facing away from him, was a woman, wearing casual Muggle clothes, the kind one might wear when simply around their home relaxing. She stood slightly above average height, cutting an average figure, not to thin, not to large, her arms spread out as if to shield the class from something. But the thing that allowed Harry, as well as Remus, to know who this was without even seeing her face, was the brilliant red hair, a set of red hair that Remus remembered, and that Harry could only remember seeing in two places, in the pictures given to him first year by Hagrid, and the Mirror of Erised. Harry and Remus immediately recognized this as Lily Potter nee Evans, the Boggart had assumed the form of Harry's mother.

Harry's mouth went dry, his hand trembled as he was brought into what he now knew to be his own personal hell. Of their classmates, Hermione and Neville were the only ones to realize what Harry's fear was, and the dread settled in their stomachs as they realized what they were all about to see.

"Move aside girl, only the child must die." The raspy hiss that had emanated from between the woman and the wardrobe made everyone in the room shiver.

"I will not move, I will not let you have my son!" Lily's defiant voice echoed across the room. Harry shakily attempted to lift his wand, but no matter what he did, he couldn't think of a way to make this situation funny.

"Then you will join your husband, _Avada Kedavra_!" The hissing voice returned, and it's end was accompanied by a bright green flash, the woman falling backwards towards the group, for a fleeting second the entire room saw a pair of malevolent crimson eyes framed by pale skin, the image of those eyes burning into the minds of the entire room. Before Lily had even hit the floor, she was standing up again, the entire scene repeating itself.

Just before the hissing voice began again, Draco moved in front of Harry, causing the scene to change to a scene that nobody understood, nor had they recovered enough from Harry's Boggart to catch more than a glimpse of a tuft of blonde hair before Draco's wand flicked through the movements and he cast the spell, turning whatever his fear was into a puppy on a leash being dragged into the wardrobe.

"W-w-well done Mr Malfoy," Remus managed to stutter out as he recovered from what he had seen, "That will be 10 points to Slytherin for assisting another student. I would like to ask however why you felt the need to do so, from what I have been told, the animosity between Gryffindor and Slytherin is still as strong as it was in my time."

"Nobody should have to watch their family die." Draco's aristocratic voice wavered for a second as he spoke, however only Harry and Remus picked up on it.

"Well class," Having looked at the clock Remus began getting everyone's attention, "I believe the lesson is about to end, so, how about all of you go and start heading to your next classes. We won't have any homework for this lesson. Now, I will see you all next time, Mr Potter, please remain behind."

The class began filing out after that, Hermione and Neville casting worried glances at Harry on their way out. Remus pulled out a chocolate bar, breaking some of it off and offering it to Harry, who mechanically took it and began eating.

"Do you just carry a bar of chocolate everywhere?" Harry joked, the paleness of his skin showing that he was merely trying to pretend he was ok.

"Your father always made that joke. I would have never guessed that was your greatest fear, I would have thought it might be Voldemort, I just didn't expect, well, THAT. I was ready to jump in just in case as well, but then, when I saw her, I just froze. Aside from the Marauders your mother was my best friend, seeing her face, watching that happen. How do you even remember that?" Remus's face showed the raw pain the sight of his old friend had brought to the man, his tone conveying how close he himself was to breaking down into tears.

"I really only remembered when the Dementor came near me, although the memory wasn't as complete." Harry replied, a small amount of colour slowly leaking back onto his face.

"What do you mean it wasn't as complete?" Remus inquired, his curiosity giving him something to control his emotions with.

"Well, originally, all I could remember when the Dementor came near was a flash of red and green. I guess it must have been when my mum spun around to face Voldemort," Harry's eyes had gained a faraway look, "I only know what she looks like through pictures, well, pictures and the Mirror."

"What mirror? I don't really see how a mirror could let you see your mother." Remus's puzzled expression caused a small laugh to escape from Harry, which in turn caused a smile to grow across Remus's face.

"The Mirror of Erised, I encountered it in my first year, when I looked into it, I saw Mum and Dad." Harry smiled a sombre smile as he remembered the events of his first year surrounding that mirror.

"Ah yes, Dumbledore did mention that when he told me about your last two years," An annoyed expression had made its way onto his face, "While I would love to stay and continue talking with you Harry, I do believe both of us have a class in a few minutes."

"I don't, I have a free period, I figured that if I had too many assignments to do I could use the free period to help catch up on them." Harry had collected his bag as he spoke, slowly walking out of the room with Remus, knowing that Remus would be going back to his classroom to wait for the next class soon.

Harry turned away after saying goodbye to Remus, heading off to the Gryffindor Common Room, his intention being to use his free period to work up a list of spells they may go over in review for the subjects Harry, Hermione, and Neville are taking, as well as which spells they will try and help Luna with.

* * *

**This is a wrap this fortnight, I apologise for it being a shorter chapter than usual but this is currently an exam week for me. Next chapter should be full sized, I won't make any promises as it will be exam block when I need to post yeah, Anatomy study for me this week, Physiology for me next fortnight. **

**And yes, I changed Harry's Boggart to something that I believe would be a bit more horrifying to me if I were Harry.**

**So, until next time, **

**Lucison.**


	8. Not A Chapter

**(This is not a chapter)**

**I'm sorry all but this fortnight I am going to have to pass on posting an actual chapter, I have had too much work to do and so haven't had the time to even get halfway through a small chapter. I will post the actual chapter next fortnight though, I will have had downtime from my exams by then to write the chapter.**

**Lucison**


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